Market Snapshot: Stock futures fall ahead of CPI update, and after China inflation surges

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U.S. stock futures slipped as investors awaited key inflation data, a day after major indexes broke lengthy winning streams. A surprise jump in consumer prices in China was also seen as denting some enthusiasm for equities.

How are stock-index futures trading?
  • S&P 500 futures
    ES00,
    -0.35%

    were down 0.1% at 4,673

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average
    YM00,
    -0.27%

    futures fell 0.1% to 36,166

  • Nasdaq-100 futures
    NQ00,
    -0.54%

    fell less than a percent to 16,199

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.31%

fell 112 points, or 0.31%, to 36320, the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.35%

declined 16 points, or 0.35%, to 4685, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-0.60%

dropped 96 points, or 0.6%, to 15887.

What’s driving the market?

Inflation will swing into focus for Wednesday, with U.S. October consumer prices expected to jump on both headline and core basis — by 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively. Annual CPI is expected to climb 5.8%, the highest level in 30 years, noted Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com.

Those data will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, alongside weekly jobless claims, with the October federal budget due at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

The CPI update comes a day after news of higher U.S. producer prices. Meanwhile, China on Tuesday reported its own factory gate prices surged 13.5% in October, the highest level since 1996. Consumer prices in the country rose 1.5% to a 13-month high, driven mainly by a jump in prices for food and fuel.

Investors will be waiting to see if stocks can recover after Tuesday’s losses halted an eight-day win streak for the S&P 500 and an 11-session winning run for the Nasdaq Composite. The pause came as talk of a melt-up for stocks has increased amid an unusually strong run-up moving into the holidays.

“The decline in Tesla was a factor, but ultimately such a straight charge up will just run out of gas sooner or later. The look-ahead to inflation is maybe a factor so this needs to be assessed with today’s CPI print,” said Wilson.

Shares of Tesla
TSLA,
-11.99%

tumbled 11% on Tuesday after a string of headlines that have rattled investors. Founder and CEO Elon Musk over the weekend asked Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his stock, with the majority saying yes, and his brother Kimbal sold shares a day before that tweet.

After surging 42% in October, the electric-car maker’s stock has dropped 16% this week, though rose 2% in premarket trading.

And a Tesla rival will begin trading on the Nasdaq Wednesday, as Amazon.com
AMZN,
+2.50%

-backed electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc. is due to debut under the ticker symbol RIVN RIVN.

Rivian priced its initial public offering at $78 a share Tuesday evening, well above its expected range and valuing the company at $77 billion on a fully diluted basis.

Rivian IPO: 5 things to know about the Amazon-backed electric-vehicle maker

And: NIO forecast disappoints as Chinese electric-car maker faces supply-chain concerns

The Walt Disney Co.
DIS,
-1.00%

is among companies due to report earning on Wednesday.

What companies are in focus?