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Investing.com — U.S. stock index futures moved broadly higher on Tuesday, as investors reacted to a faster-than-anticipated U.S. inflation reading.
Headline U.S. consumer price growth accelerated in February, while the underlying measure was faster than anticipated,
The annualized reading of the closely-watched consumer price index increased by 3.2% last month, quicker than estimates that it would remain at a pace of 3.1% notched in January. The year-on-year core figure, which strips out volatile items like food and fuel, cooled to 3.8% from 3.9%, but was still slightly above projections of 3.7%.
Month-on-month, the overall consumer price index rose by 0.4% in February, in line with expectations and faster than the 0.3% uptick in January. The core gauge came in at 0.4%, matching the prior month and marginally hotter than expectations of 0.3%.
The data pointed to possibly sticky inflationary pressures that could complicate the timing of potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts this year. Several Fed officials, chiefly Chair Jerome Powell, have warned that the central bank’s plans for reductions in 2024 will be largely dictated by the path of inflation.
Even still, S&P 500 futures had risen 0.5%, Nasdaq 100 futures had added 0.6%, and Dow Jones futures had 0.2% by 09:07 ET (13:07 GMT).
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) pops on AI-driven earnings, buoys tech stocks
Oracle was one of the best performers in premarket trade, surging nearly 14% after clocking stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on increased demand for its AI offerings.
The cloud computing firm said it will make a joint announcement with AI darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) this week, citing expectations of increased demand for cloud infrastructure from the growing AI industry.
Gains in Oracle spilled over into other tech heavyweights in extended trade, given that AI hype has been a key driver of stock gains in recent months. Nvidia rose 1.3%, while Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) added 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively.
But barring Oracle, most major tech stocks were nursing losses over the prior two sessions, as investors locked in recent profits in the sector ahead of more cues on U.S. interest rates.
The S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 5,117.94 points on Monday, while the NASDAQ Composite fell 0.4% to 16,019.27 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.1% at 38,769.66 points.
