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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 10, 2025 in New York City.
NYSE
Stock futures hovered near the flatline on Wednesday morning as traders looked ahead to the release of December's consumer price index, a key gauge of inflation.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10 points, or 0.02%. S&P 500 futures were marginally up, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.12%.
In the regular session, the blue-chip Dow gained 221.16 points, or 0.52%, while the S&P 500 added 0.11%. On the other hand, a pullback in tech names weighed on the Nasdaq Composite, which fell 0.23%.
The moves came after December's wholesale inflation report came in lighter than expected. The producer price index added just 0.2%, less than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for a 0.4% increase.
Following this data release, investors now turn their attention to December's consumer price index reading, which will be out at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Economists polled by Dow Jones see headline CPI rising 0.3% on a monthly basis and gaining 2.9% over the prior 12 months. The inflation reading will be a consideration for the Federal Reserve as it makes its interest rate decision later this month.
Fourth-quarter earnings season also kicks off in earnest this week, with a slew of big financial services companies due to report their earnings. BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup will post results before Wednesday's opening bell.
"We do think earnings will be stronger," said Jay Hatfield, founder of Infrastructure Capital Advisors. "The economy is strong in the fourth quarter. Usually, companies learn if they have a problem by then, and they're probably going to be pretty optimistic about the future because the Trump administration is pro-business. So we think that most CEOs are pretty optimistic about the forecast for 2025."
Seven of 11 sectors ended Tuesday higher
Seven of the 11 GICS sector ended Tuesday's trading session higher.
Utilities, with a 1.3% gain, was the session's leader, while communication services was the laggard and lost 0.97%. The materials, real estate and healthcare sectors closed more than 10% of their 52-week highs.
— Lisa Kailai Han, Christopher Hayes
SEC sues Elon Musk for alleged failure to properly disclose Twitter ownership
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday, alleging that the billionaire violated securities law in 2022 by acquiring Twitter shares at "artificially low prices."
Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion. Before acquiring the company he held a position in Twitter of greater than 5%, which would have required public disclosure. However, the SEC complaint said that Musk didn't properly follow disclosure rules, "allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership report was due."
Read the developing story and allegations here.
— Ari Levy, Lisa Kailai Han
English (US)