U.S. Stocks May Regain Ground Following Inflation Data

Stocks are likely to move to the upside in early trading on Thursday, regaining ground after coming under considerable selling pressure over the course of the previous session.

The major index futures are currently pointing to a notably higher open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.8 percent.

The futures jumped following the release of the Labor Department’s report on consumer price inflation, which showed an unexpected slowdown in the annual rate of price growth.

The report said the annual rate of growth by consumer prices slowed to 2.7 percent in November from 3.0 percent in September. Economists had expected the annual rate of growth to tick up to 3.1 percent.

The annual rate of growth by core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, also slowed to 2.6 percent in November from 3.0 percent in September. The pace of core price growth was expected to remain unchanged.

The Labor Department noted that survey data for October 2025 was not collected due to the government shutdown.

The unexpected slowdowns by the annual rates of price growth is likely to increase confidence about the Federal Reserve continuing to lower interest rates in the new year.

A separate report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits declined roughly in line with economist estimates in the week ended December 13th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 224,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 237,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 225,000 from the 236,000 originally reported for the previous week.

After ending Tuesday’s choppy session narrowly mixed, stocks moved to the upside in early trading on Wednesday but quickly came under pressure. The major averages pulled back well off their highs of the session and firmly into negative territory.

The major averages saw further downside going into the end of the day, closing just off their lows of the session.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 418.14 points or 1.8 percent to 22,693.32, the S&P 500 slumped 78.83 points or 1.2 percent to 6,721.43 and the Dow fell 228.29 points or 0.5 percent to 47,885.97.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slid by 1.0 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index crept up by 0.2 percent.

The major European markets have also turned mixed on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.5 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are climbing $0.34 to $56.28 a barrel after jumping $0.67 to $55.94 a barrel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, after surging $41.60 to $4,373.90 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are slipping $8.80 to $4,365.10 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 155.49 yen versus the 155.67 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Wednesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1746 compared to yesterday’s $1.1739.

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