Stock market futures fell on Thursday as market players began to reason that another tepid inflation report along with jobless claims showed the economy was holding up amid a rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones futures market recorded 172 points, or 0.49%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.71% and Nasdaq-100 futures fell 0.85%. The earnings beat sent some stocks higher.
Stock futures continued to decline after January's producer price index, another measure of inflation, rose 0.7% on the month while economists polled by Dow Jones had expected a 0.4% increase. Initial jobless claims fell for the week ending February 11, according to a Labor Department report.
The new data came after the consumer price index and January retail sales report were both higher than expected, indicating that the Federal Reserve may need to continue its efforts to tame inflation.
Nevertheless, the market remains resilient. on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38.78 points, or 0.11%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.28%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite recorded its third consecutive day of gains, rising 0.92%.
"The Fed said they were going to be hawkish, but technically it was an indication that the market was starting to take risks, and I really don't think we're going to retest the October lows, because we've hit some very important fundamentals. technical support,” said Victoria Greene, chief investment officer at G Squared Private Wealth.
The US dollar index, which measures the US dollar against six major currencies, traded up 0.14% to trade at 103.987 after the data was released.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits after a sudden layoff fell last week, in a sign of resilient tensions in the US labor market. Initial jobless claims fell to 194,000 people in the week ended February 11, according to Labor Department data on Thursday, lower than the revised downward figure of 195,000 the previous week.
