Stock futures indicated a downward trend in anticipation of a significant inflation report, coinciding with an increase in oil prices on Thursday. This comes a day after the three major U.S. equity indexes achieved record closing levels. Futures for the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average indicated declines of 0.4%, 0.3%, and 0.2%, respectively, in the latest trading session. All three leading U.S. stock indexes concluded Wednesday at unprecedented levels, with the Dow additionally achieving an intraday record. This morning, attention will be focused on the Personal Consumption Expenditures reading for April, scheduled for release at 8:30 am.

The PCE, which serves as the Federal Reserve’s favoured measure of inflation, is anticipated to have increased by 0.5% on a month-over-month basis, a decrease from the 0.7% rise observed in March, while year-over-year, it is projected to be at 3.8%, an increase from 3.5% in March. Core” PCE, which excludes the more volatile food and energy prices, is anticipated to remain at 0.3% month-over-month while rising to 3.3% year-over-year, up from 3.2% in March. Oil prices increased early Thursday following reports of military strikes exchanged between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, experienced an increase of 3.2%, reaching $91.50 a barrel in recent trading. Meanwhile, front-month contracts of Brent crude, the global benchmark, saw a rise of 3%, surpassing $97.

The 10-year Treasury yield, a critical determinant of interest rates on mortgages and various consumer loans, increased to over 4.50%, rising from Wednesday’s closing figure of below 4.49%. Gold futures declined by 1.5%, settling at $4,380 per ounce. Bitcoin was at 73,400, down from overnight highs around 75,300. The U.S. dollar index, which monitors the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, registered an increase of 0.1% to reach 99.31. In notable post-earnings moves, shares of Snowflake soared 39% after the cloud-based data platform provider topped analysts’ estimates and announced a $6 billion AI deal with Amazon’s AWS to support its AI goals; Marvell Technology reversed earlier losses and rose 1.5%; and Salesforce ticked higher.

Dell Technologies and Costco Wholesale were up a respective 4.5% and less than 1% ahead of their earnings reports after markets close today. The Magnificent Seven stocks indicated a predominantly downward trajectory in premarket trading. Shares of Meta Platforms were little changed after leading the septet yesterday with a nearly 4% advance, following the announcement that it would begin selling subscriptions to “enhanced” versions of its social-media products.