Stock futures were slightly higher Wednesday evening after the latest CPI data showed inflation is still running hot.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 80 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures each rose 0.2% also.
Disney shares fell about 2% after hours despite strong earnings for its most recent quarter. The company said Covid is still weighing on its theme parks in Asia.
In regular trading, the Dow fell 326 points, or 1.02%. The S&P 500 slipped 1.65% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.18%.
The moves came as investors assessed the latest inflation data, which showed consumer prices in April jumped 8.3%, which was higher than expected and still running close to their 40-year high of 8.5%. Analysts are mixed on whether the data suggests inflation has hit a peak.
While the market briefly turned positive at one point in the session, the S&P 500 at one point touched a new 52-week low and eventually closed at its lowest level of the year. The S&P 500 is more than 18% off its high and down more than 17% since the start of the year.
Still, market bull Tom Lee of Fundstrat remains bullish on stocks. He said if the market finds its footing “we’re in a world of double digit expected returns.”
“This week is interesting because the stock market declines have accelerated downwards, so the waterfall is accelerating but things that normally would corroborate a waterfall decline like yields or the VIX have not been,” Lee told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “The bond market’s actually been pretty stable even in the face of a hot CPI and the VIX actually has been falling.”
He noted that of the 16 times since 1940 that the market has declined 16% in a four-month period, it was higher six months later in 12 of those events.
SoftBank is set to report earnings on Thursday morning before the bell. Affirm, Poshmark and Toast are on deck after the bell.
In economic data, investors will be looking out for the latest on jobless claims, which will be released at 8:30. They’re also looking forward to fresh data on the producer price index, which measures prices at the wholesale level.
