Stock futures are slightly lower as investors await more inflation data: Live updates – CNBC

China's exports exceeded expectations in December, but fell short of offsetting an overall decline in 2023, according to Friday's customs figures.

Exports rose 2.3% in U.S. dollar terms from a year earlier last month, beating expectations for a 1.7% increase in a Reuters poll. Imports rose 0.2% in US dollar terms in December compared to the same month last year, slightly below the 0.3% increase predicted by a Reuters poll.

According to customs data, exports fell by 4.6% and imports by 5.5% in 2023.

Read the full text here.

— Evelyn Chen

Stocks in mainland China and Hong Kong reversed their decline as Chinese stocks fell. consumer price index The decline was slower than expected in December.

The Hang Seng Index rose 0.32% and the CSI 300 Index rose 0.21%, but both started in negative territory.

The country's inflation rate was -0.3%, compared with -0.5% in November, and was a moderate decline compared to the 0.4% expected in a Reuters poll.

China's producer price index The index, which measures changes in the prices of goods sold by manufacturers, fell 2.7% year-on-year, but slower than the 3% decline in November.

— Lim Huijie

Oil prices rose after Britain and the United States carried out military strikes on targets in Yemen's Houthi-held areas amid rising tensions in the Red Sea, U.S. officials said.

In Asian trading hours on Friday, global benchmark Brent crude rose 1.87% to $78.90 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 2.05% to $73.49 per barrel. Ta.

“These targeted attacks demonstrate that the United States and our partners condone attacks on our personnel and that adversaries threaten freedom of navigation in one of the world's most important commercial shipping lanes,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. This sends a clear message that we will not tolerate any threat to the United States.” Thursday evening.

– Li Yingshan

Although the three major averages ended the day almost flat, they still managed to record several milestones during the trading session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new intraday high, rising 0.28% to 37,801.90. The 30-stock index ended the day with a slight increase of 15.29 points (0.04%).

The S&P 500 hit a 52-week high of 4,798.50 (up 0.31%) on an intraday basis during trading. The broader market index was more subdued on the day, down 0.07%.

Finally, the Nasdaq Composite Index ended 0.54 points (0.004%) higher on Thursday, managing to snap its fifth consecutive session of positive trading.

— Darla Mercado, Chris Hayes

Japanese stocks, which much of Wall Street favors going into 2024, have fared better so far than all but one of the seven Magnificent stocks in the U.S., at least when measured in local currencies. In January, the TOPIX index rose 4.92%, the Nikkei Stock Average rose 4.74%, and Nvidia was the only company at the top with a 10.7% rise.

In fact, the TOPIX index has outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 12 months, rising 33.9% versus the S&P 500's rise of 22.5% over the same period, also in local currency terms.

genetically modified cropsThe Boston-based asset management firm, founded by value investor Jeremy Grantham, said in a recent report that “supportive headlines about shareholder-friendly policymakers' efforts and upside in corporate earnings have pushed stock prices higher. “It was,” he wrote.

“We believe Japan is experiencing a lasting fundamental improvement and a lasting change in attitude towards shareholders,” GMO analysts Drew Edwards and John Thorndike wrote. Moreover, if, as GMO predicts, “the yen slowly returns to fair value, providing USD-based investors with a 4% tailwind,” international investors will benefit even more from currency effects. .

Despite little activity on Thursday, the three major indexes are looking to end the week higher with one trading session left.

The Dow is up 0.7% since the beginning of the week, while the S&P 500 is up 1.8%. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which is heavy on tech stocks, outperformed, rising 3.1%.

— Alex Harring

Consumer price inflation in December exceeded expectations. But Wall Street shrugged its shoulders and decided in its infinite wisdom that the Fed was unlikely to accelerate the pace of interest rate cuts expected later this year.

Calculated based on implicit probabilities derived from interest rate futures contracts. CME FedWatch ToolsThe probability that the federal funds rate will be cut by a quarter point to 5.00-5.25% at the March central bank meeting was less than 65% on Wednesday, up from about 62% a week ago to 70% on Thursday. did.

The odds that interest rates will fall by 0.5 percentage point to between 4.75% and 5.00% by the end of the Fed's next May meeting rose from 53.4% ​​on Wednesday and just 48.9% a week ago to nearly 65% ​​on Thursday. The probability that interest rates will have fallen by only a quarter of a percentage point at the end of the May policy meeting has shrunk to 30.2% from Wednesday's 38.5% and last week's 40.3%.

Implicit forecasts for June have also become more positive. The odds that interest rates will be cut by three-quarters of a percentage point (4.5-4.75%) rose to 58.9% on Thursday from 53.2% on Wednesday and 47.2% last week. In fact, the probability that interest rates would even be cut by 1 percentage point by the end of the June meeting jumped to 13.5% on Thursday, from just 3% the day before.

— Scott Schnipper

The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw more than $1 billion traded on the exchange in its first day, according to Rachel Aguirre, head of U.S. products for iShares.

This is the highest amount among new Bitcoin funds, second only to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which previously traded over-the-counter and already held more than $28 billion in assets.

“Today's transaction went very well and was done in a very orderly manner,” Aguirre said.

— Jesse Pound

Stock futures were little changed after 6pm ET. Futures tracking the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 all traded near the flatline.

— Alex Harring