U.S. futures advanced, suggesting stocks could stage a modest rebound in Wednesday trading, after stronger-than-expected inflation data triggered a huge selloff in the previous session.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 rose 0.5%, a day after the benchmark index plummeted 4.3%. Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4%, while those tied to the technology-focused Nasdaq-100 added 0.6%.
Major U.S. indexes on Tuesday posted their steepest one-day losses since June 2020 as investors responded to the release of U.S. inflation data, which showed a key measure ofU.S. consumer prices had increased sharply from the previous month. That curbed hopes the Federal Reserve might slow its aggressive pace of interest-rate increases.
On a monthly basis, the U.S. core consumer-price index, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.6% in August—double the pace of July’s increase. Headline CPI rose 8.3% in August from the same time a year earlier. That was down from 8.5% in July and 9.1% in June.
“I don’t think that a bad print of the CPI warrants this extreme reaction,” said Peter Andersen, founder of Boston-based investment firm Andersen Capital Management, referring to the sharp selloff in U.S. stocks. “When you look at data like this, if it isn’t a consistent straight line or improvement, I don’t think it means that we’re not progressing,” he added.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note edged higher to 3.427% from 3.422% Tuesday. Meanwhile, the yield on the two-year note, which is more sensitive to near-term rate expectations, rose to 3.769%, from 3.754%.
The previous day’s increase in bond yields, which move in the opposite direction to prices, was another indication that investors expect more upward pressure on interest rates after the inflation data. The Fed’s interest-rate-setting committee is set to meet next week.
Overseas, major stock indexes fell, following the selloff in the U.S. In Europe, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.2%. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.9%, despite new data that showed that U.K. inflation eased slightly in August, due to lower gasoline prices.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 2.5%, and the CSI 300 index of the largest stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen was down 1.1%. The smaller declines suggest the U.S. inflation reading was less of a concern for investors in Chinese equities, said Andy Maynard, the Hong Kong-based head of equities at China Renaissance.
Mr. Maynard said the market has already priced in a host of other issues for Chinese companies, such as the country’s property crisis, its zero-Covid policy and tighter regulations on technology companies.
“The global funds, if they have the ability to move their money out of this part of the world, have done so a long time ago,” he said.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.8%, South Korea’s Kospi index fell 1.5% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 2.6%.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, edged 0.2% higher to $93.32 a barrel. NYMEX Light Crude Oil slid 0.22% to $87.12.
Gold slid 0.19% to $1714.2.
VIX slipped nearly 3% while VIXmain slid 0.9%.
The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of other currencies, fell 0.4%, after notching its largest one-day gain since March 2020 on Tuesday.