Dow Futures Rise 215 Pts; U.S. CPI Report Looms Large

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By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally higher Tuesday, with investors cautiously awaiting the August consumer price index release which is likely to set the tone ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting.

At 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 215 points or 0.7%, S&P 500 Futures traded 28 points or 0.7% higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 75 points or 0.6%.

The major equity averages closed higher Monday, continuing last week’s relief rally, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining over 200 points or 0.7%, the broad-based S&P 500 closing up 1.1%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite jumping 1.3%.

Market confidence appears to have been bolstered by the belief that inflation has already peaked, and with this in mind, the August inflation report, due at 08:30 ET (12:30 GMT), is firmly in the spotlight.

This report comes just about a week before the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting, and is expected to show that inflation has slowed with energy and commodities prices having fallen sharply in the last month.

The headline August CPI annual number is expected to come in at 8.1%, down from 8.5% in July, while the monthly figure is seen falling 0.1%, compared with a flat number the prior month.

The market will be looking at not just the headline number but the core number that strips out food and fuel, and this is expected to come in at 0.3% on the month, unchanged from July’s release.

Signs of tumbling inflation could cause the Fed to pause interest rate hikes sooner than widely expected, Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) said, which would launch a powerful market surge.

"Every one of us sees when we go to the gas station that the price of gasoline is down, and oil is down. We see it even with food. So, it really is showing up in the data already," said the bank’s U.S. equity strategist Jonathan Golub, in an interview with CNBC on Monday. "And, that’s a really big potential positive."

In the corporate sector, Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON) will be in focus after the troubled exercise bike maker announced that co-founders John Foley and Hisao Kushi are stepping down from their executive roles as part of a restructuring.

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is holding an investor day later Tuesday, while Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) stock rose 2% premarket after the software maker reported healthy first quarter revenues as demand for its cloud services remained strong and it started to reap the benefits of buying healthcare IT firm Cerner (NASDAQ:CERN).

Oil prices rose Tuesday ahead of the release of not only the U.S. inflation data, which will likely impact the dollar but also OPEC’s monthly outlook report.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies agreed last week to reduce crude production, and traders will look to the report, due later in the session, for more cues on global demand.

The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, is scheduled to report its U.S. inventory report later Tuesday, ahead of the official Energy Information Administration report the following day.

By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% higher at $88.80 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.1% to $95.00.

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,738.15/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% higher at 1.0139.