Stock market today: Wall Street remains calm ahead of more inflation and jobs data after Tuesday’s rally

Wall Street oscillated between small gains and losses early Wednesday ahead of more economic news, including an inflation gauge and more jobs data.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 were essentially flat about an hour before the opening bell.

Markets rallied Tuesday after the Conference Board reported the news Consumer confidence collapsed in August, surprising economists who had expected readings to hold steady around the strong July reading. Consumer confidence and spending have been closely watched amid ongoing inflationary pressures.

The government also announced on Tuesday job vacancies have fallen to their lowest level since March 2021, a larger drop than economists had expected. The report also showed that the number of Americans who quit their jobs fell sharply for the second straight month, a clear sign the job market is cooling in ways that could lower inflation.

Investors are hoping this could prevent the Fed from raising interest rates again at its meeting later this month. The US Federal Reserve was increase in the key interest rate the highest level since 2001 for more than a year in a bid to bring inflation back to its 2% target. Wall Street is banking on the Fed leaving rates unchanged at its September meeting.

The US economy grew at a solid 2.1% annual pace from April to June and has continued to show resilience amid higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, the government said in a downgrade of its original estimate on Wednesday.

Earlier, the government had estimated that the economy expanded by 10% 2.4% annual rate in the most recent quarter.

Several other key economic reports are available for investors and economists this week, including new consumer spending data on Thursday that includes a measure of inflation closely monitored by the Federal Reserve. The monthly employment report for August is due out on Friday.

In stock trading, Box plummeted nearly 10% premarket after the cloud-computing company met Wall Street’s second-quarter targets but scaled expectations for the full year. HP also lowered its 2023 guidance, and the stock slipped more than 9%.

At midday, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.2% in Europe, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.3%. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1%.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% to close at 32,333.46. South Korea’s kospi rose 0.4% to 2,561.22. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed at 18,482.86, while the Shanghai Composite was up less than 0.1% to 3,137.14.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2% to 7,297.70 after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the monthly consumer price index rose 4.9% in the 12 months to July, the first time since February 2022 that the indicator fell below 5%.

In energy trading, the reference price for US crude rose 48 cents to $81.64 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 44 cents to $85.35 a barrel.

In forex trading, the US dollar rose to 146.25 Japanese yen from 145.87 yen. The euro cost $1.0883, up slightly from $1.0881.

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Kageyama reported from Tokyo; Ott reported from Silver Spring, Maryland.