Fellow technology giants Apple and Amazon will report their results after the closing bell. Big Tech companies have regularly been the driving force behind much of the market’s gains over enthusiasm for the future of artificial intelligence.
Earnings remained a key focus outside of the technology sector in what has been a heavy week so far for corporate financial results. CVS Health rose 0.3 per cent after it topped Wall Street expectations for the second quarter and raised its full-year forecast again.
Wall Street is also monitoring the latest economic data, which included an update on inflation.
The Commerce Department said prices rose 2.6 per cent in June compared with a year ago, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures index. That’s the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure for inflation. The latest reading was slightly higher than economists expected and also marks an increase from an annual pace of 2.4 per cent in May.
Results from another measure of inflation earlier this month, the consumer price index, also showed inflation rising in June.
Also on Thursday, a report showed that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits inched up last week.
The latest updates on inflation and the jobs market are landing amid lingering concerns about the impact of tariffs. Inflation’s temperature is being closely monitored by businesses and the Fed to better gauge the impact of President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again approach to import taxes. Companies including Ford and Hershey’s have more recently warned that tariffs are weighing on their latest and projected financial results.
Trump has said he will levy tariffs against goods from dozens of countries if they don’t reach agreements with the US by Friday. The latest developments in the seemingly unpredictable tariff landscape include a potential pause in tariff escalations with China and a deal with South Korea.
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The reasons behind trade policy decisions remain unpredictable. Trump, on Wednesday, signed an executive order to impose his threatened 50 per cent tariffs on Brazil. He has directly linked the import tax to the trial of his ally, the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro. He has also said that trade negotiations with Canada would be more difficult in the wake of that nation’s economically unrelated decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
Uncertainty over tariffs and inflation have prompted the Fed to leave its benchmark interest rate alone through the central bank’s past five meetings, including the one that ended Wednesday. The Fed has been trying to cool the rate of inflation back to its target of 2 per cent. It has come close, but inflation remains stubbornly stuck just above that target.
A cut in rates would give the job market and overall economy a boost, but it could also risk fueling inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been pressured by Trump to cut the benchmark rate, though that decision isn’t his to make alone, but belongs to the 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee.
“Inflation is only a bit above the Fed’s target, but looks likely to rise in the second half of the year due to tariffs,” said by Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank. “With the job market in pretty good shape, they see room to hold interest rates steady and lean against inflation’s increase near-term.”
Wall Street has been tempering their expectations for rate cuts at the Fed’s next meeting in September. Traders now see a 39 per cent chance of a rate cut, according to data from CME Group. That’s down from 58.4 per cent a week ago and a 75.4 per cent chance a month ago.
Treasury yields held steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.36 per cent from 4.37 per cent late on Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury remained at 3.94 per cent from late Wednesday.
