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Stock Market Today: S&P 500, Nasdaq Futures Extend Losses After August PPI Inflation Report
Stock futures slipped a little further Thursday morning after the government’s latest reading on wholesale prices came in hotter than expected on an annual basis, giving Wall Street one more reason to stay cautious in a week that already had plenty working against it.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its August Producer Price Index at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, and the numbers were close enough to forecasts that they didn’t spark panic, but not clean enough to bring relief either. Producer prices rose 0.4% for the month, matching what economists had penciled in, while the core measure, which strips out food and energy, came in at 0.2%, just under the 0.3% consensus. It was the year-over-year headline figure that caught traders’ attention. Prices were up 5.4% from a year earlier, a touch above the 5.3% economists expected, and enough to nudge futures a bit lower rather than spark any kind of relief rally.
Before the report even crossed the wire, futures were already sitting on shaky ground. S&P 500 futures were roughly flat, Nasdaq 100 contracts were down about 0.4%, and Dow futures were up modestly, a mixed setup following a third consecutive losing session on Wednesday that left the Dow down more than 400 points, the S&P 500 off 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite lower by 0.6%.
Bond yields have been doing a lot of the damage lately, and Thursday was no exception. The Treasury Department’s announcement that it plans to buy back as much as six billion dollars in longer-term debt, triple its usual pace, sent the 10-year yield up to 4.857% at one point, its highest level since late 2023. Rising yields tend to weigh on stock valuations, particularly in the tech-heavy Nasdaq, and that pressure has been building for days now.
Oil is adding to the unease. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed above 97 dollars a barrel, and Brent crude pushed past 102 dollars, as tensions tied to Iran showed signs of escalating rather than easing. Higher energy costs feed directly into inflation expectations, which makes this week’s back-to-back inflation reports even more closely watched than usual.
Investors haven’t gotten a full picture yet. Friday brings the Consumer Price Index, and both readings will eventually feed into the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the inflation gauge the Federal Reserve actually leans on most heavily, though that data won’t be published until after the central bank’s rate decision on September 16. Until then, traders are left parsing individual data points for hints rather than getting the full story at once.
Corporate earnings are also part of the equation this week. Oracle’s latest results are being watched closely as a signal of whether the market’s enthusiasm for AI infrastructure spending still holds up, especially with rates rising and money getting more expensive to borrow. Overseas, the picture was mixed too. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.2%, Seoul’s Kospi slipped 0.25%, and European markets edged lower as investors waited on a widely expected rate move from the European Central Bank.
None of this points to panic. What it points to is a market that was already nervous heading into the report, and a slightly firmer inflation number that gave it permission to stay nervous rather than snap out of it. With CPI due Friday and the Fed’s meeting just a week away, Thursday’s modest dip in futures looks less like a reaction to the PPI data itself and more like traders holding their breath for what comes next.
