U.S. stock futures suggest a lackluster start to trading on Wall Street on Thursday, as investors eye recent U.S.-China trade talks and a bevy of fresh inflation data. President Donald Trump has suggested that he is open to possibly extending a 90-day delay to his punishing "reciprocal" tariffs beyond a deadline early next month. Elsewhere, markets are awaiting May producer price figures, while Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) raises its full-year revenue target, sending shares in the cloud-computing group spiking in extended hours trading.
1. Futures drop
U.S. stock futures pointed lower, with traders gauging a relatively benign consumer price reading and signs of détente in recent trade tensions between the United States and China.
By 03:37 ET (07:37 GMT), the Dow futures contract had slipped by 106 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 futures had fallen by 13 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had declined by 48 points, or 0.2%.
The benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both retreated on Wednesday, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was unchanged. Investors seemed to greet a slower-than-anticipated measure of consumer price growth in May in muted fashion, as worries persisted over the potential impact of Trump’s tariff agenda.
Markets seemed to also be cautiously assessing a framework agreement between Washington and Beijing to resume their fragile trade truce. Trump called the deal "great," although analysts flagged that the announcement was short of many concrete details and possibly left the door open for a future flare-up in the spat between the world’s two largest economies.
