(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures crawled higher on Thursday, adding to strong gains from the previous session on first signs of cooling inflation, with investors looking for more evidence from data on producer prices and the labor market.
Following a softer-than-expected rise in consumer prices on Wednesday, investors slashed their bets of another super-sized interest-rate hike, driving the main indexes sharply higher.
The gains came even as Federal Reserve policymakers left no doubt they will continue to tighten monetary policy until price pressures are fully broken.
Traders are now pricing in a more than 60% chance that the U.S. central bank will hike interest rate by 50 basis points, rather than the 75 basis points previously expected. [IRPR]
Producer prices data and the latest jobless claims numbers are due at 8:30 am ET.
As of the last close, the Nasdaq was more than 20% above its June low, but still short of its peak in November to confirm a new bull market.
The tech-heavy index is down 17.9% year-to-date despite its recent rebound, as expectations of aggressive monetary policy sapped appetite for equities, particularly high-growth stocks.
At 07:01 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 129 points, or 0.39%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 11.5 points, or 0.27%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 19 points, or 0.14%.
Banks looked set to extend their climb higher, with Bank of America up 1% in premarket trading, while megacap growth and technology stocks that led the overnight rally were mixed.
Walt Disney jumped 7.8% as the media giant edged past rival Netflix Inc with 221 million streaming customers and announced it will increase prices for customers who want to watch Disney+ or Hulu without commercials.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
