U.S. stock index futures traded largely flat Thursday as investors digested the possibility of a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, ahead of the release of more inflation data and a raft of earnings reports.
At 05:10 ET (10:10 GMT), Dow Jones Futures fell 10 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures dropped 1 point, or 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 18 points, or 0.1%.
The main Wall Street indexes ended mostly lower after stronger than expected consumer inflation data, although losses were tempered by a strong batch of quarterly earnings reports.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%, while the NASDAQ Composite ended largely flat.
Ukraine peace talks
Sentiment received a boost late Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had expressed a desire for ending their long-running conflict in separate phone calls with him. Trump also said that he had ordered top officials to begin peace talks.
The move came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Ukraine would drop its bid to join NATO - which had been a major point of contention for Moscow.
"Rebuilding Ukraine would be one of the largest construction undertakings in recent years, with total costs of nearly $500bn, according to the World Bank. This would be highly commodity-intensive, especially for steel & cement, to restore buildings and infrastructure," analysts at Barclays (LON:BARC) said, in a note.
PPI data follows hot CPI
There is more inflation data for investors to study Thursday, in the form of the latest monthly measure of U.S. producer prices, which could provide further clarity around inflation in the world's largest economy.
Economists estimate that producer prices increased by 0.3% on a monthly basis in January, up from 0.2% in December. The core measure, stripping out food, energy and trade, is tipped to accelerate to 0.3% month-on-month.
Data on Wednesday showed that U.S. consumer prices rose by more than expected in January, pointing to lingering inflationary pressures that could bolster the case for the Fed to carefully approach future potential interest rate reductions.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a testimony before Congress earlier this week that the central bank will have to wait until it was clear inflation was moving towards its 2% goal before cutting rates further. The Fed had slashed rates by 1% through 2024.
Trump has also vowed to bring down high inflation, which he blames on the Biden administration. But analysts and Fed officials have cautioned that his agenda of trade tariffs - which will be paid by U.S. importers - could underpin inflation in the coming months.
Trump this week approved 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. He also flagged the potential for reciprocal tariffs against major U.S. trading partners.
Earnings continue to flow
This quarterly earnings season has been a generally productive one. Over two-thirds of S&P 500-listed firms have already posted results, and nearly 77% have surpassed Wall Street expectations, according to FactSet.
There are more companies due to report Thursday, including home rental company Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB), cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) and cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW).
Additionally, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) stock gained premarket after the technology conglomerate lifted its annual revenue guidance thanks in large part to artificial intelligence-fueled demand for its cloud networking gear.
Dutch Bros (NYSE:BROS) stock surged premarket after the coffee chain reported stronger-than-expected earnings and same-store sales that surpassed expectations.
On the flip side, Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) stock slumped premarket after the social media platform's daily active unique visitors in the fourth quarter missed expectations, with CEO Steve Huffman citing changes in Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s search algorithm that impacted the number of users coming to the website.
Crude falls on peace hopes
Oil prices fell on expectations that a potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia would end sanctions that have disrupted supply flows.
By 05:10 ET, the U.S. crude futures (WTI) slipped 1.5% to $70.33 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 1.4% to $74.16 a barrel.
Both benchmarks fell more than 2% on Wednesday on raised hopes of a peace deal after President Trump spoke with the presidents of both Russia and Ukraine.
Russia is the world's third-largest oil producer and sanctions imposed on its crude exports as a result of its invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago have supported higher prices.
A build in crude oil inventories in the United States, the world's biggest crude consumer, also weighed on the market.
