Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell on April 9, 2025.
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images
Stock futures were little changed on Monday, as investors prepare for a fresh inflation report.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9 points, or 0.02%. Nasdaq 100 futures hovered near the flatline, alongside S&P 500 futures.
Investors are keenly focused on Tuesday’s consumer price index report, hoping to gather potential insight into how the Federal Reserve will handle short-term interest rates, especially as the S&P 500 hovers near an all-time high. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the index to advance 0.2% month-over-month in July, and 2.8% on an annualized basis. So-called core CPI, which strips out food and energy from the reading, is expected to climb 0.3% month-over-month and 3.1% year over year.
Investors largely ignored President Donald Trump’s decision earlier Monday to extend his 90-day pause on the higher levies on Chinese goods.
“Investors seem to be betting on upcoming interest rate cuts and counting on them to counteract the drag from tariffs. We think it is too early to make that assumption,” said Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management. “The degree of tariff impacts and how long they will take to work through the economy remain open questions. In the meantime, high equity valuations may heighten the impact any negative developments have on stock returns.”
Wall Street will also parse Thursday’s producer price index report for a reading on wholesale inflation. Both reports come ahead of the Fed’s Jackson Hole gathering at the end of August, ahead of the central bank’s September policy meeting. The market is currently pricing in a nearly 87% chance of a rate cut next month, per trading data from the CME’s FedWatch Tool.
