Investing.com– U.S. stock index futures traded in a mixed fashion Thursday, as investors digested hawkish messages from the Federal Reserve as well as benign consumer prices, with more economic data due.
At 06:20 ET (10:20 GMT), fell 155 points, or 0.4%, while traded largely flat and rose 100 points, or 0.5%.
Wall Street is coming off a largely strong session, with the and the hitting all-time highs and closing at records. The 30-stock was the outlier, closing 0.1% lower.
Fed strikes hawkish chord, CPI inflation falls
The Fed as widely expected on Wednesday. But Chair Jerome Powell surprised markets by stating that the central bank was now set to cut rates only once this year, down from a prior estimate in March for three cuts.
The change in the Fed’s stance came as more members saw signs of higher inflation in the country, with some policymakers also calling for no cuts this year. The central bank also raised its inflation outlook for the year.
But the Fed’s hawkish messaging was somewhat offset by data showing inflation eased slightly in May.
The May is due later in the session and is set to offer more cues on overall inflation, while the weekly numbers will add details about the labor market.
Broadcom shines
The rech sector has been in the spotlight this week, after Apple (NASDAQ:) announced a slew of new AI features for its flagship devices, and that it was also partnering with OpenAI to implement some of the features, and cloud giant Oracle (NYSE:) announced AI partnerships with Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:).
This focus is set to continue Thursday, as Broadcom (NASDAQ:) surged over 12% premarket after the chipmaker clocked bumper earnings on AI demand. The firm also announced a 10-for-1 stock split.
Elsewhere, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment (NASDAQ:) stock fell 10% after the company’s first-quarter revenue missed estimates.
Tesla (NASDAQ:) stock gained 5% after CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post that shareholders are backing his $56 billion pay package and a move by the electric vehicle giant to reincorporate in Texas from Delaware.
Crude slips on stockpile build
Crude prices fell Thursday after a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories dented expectations of growing demand in the world’s largest consumer.
By 06:20 ET, the futures (WTI) traded 1% lower at $77.75 per barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 0.9% to $81.89 per barrel.
Government data, released on Wednesday, showed that U.S. unexpectedly grew by 3.7 million barrels in the first week of June, against expectations for a draw of 1.2 million barrels.
Outsized builds in distillates and gasoline stockpiles also drove up concerns that fuel demand was not picking up with the summer season as expected.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)