Stock Market Today: Wall Street Heads Towards Losses Ahead Of Key Report On US Inflation

Wall Street cited losses early Thursday, ahead of this week's release of U.S. inflation data that could illuminate the path forward for interest rates.

S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures both fell 0.2% before markets opened.

This week, markets are mainly focused on the US government's inflation report, due Friday. The personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, and analysts said investors were in a wait-and-see posture after recent mixed data.

Latest inflation updates could influence central banks' decision on when to start cutting interest rates, which remain at their highest level in more than 20 years and are having an impact around the world .

Investors hope the Federal Reserve will soon begin cutting interest rates, but its efforts to bring inflation back to its 2% target have been arduous. Wall Street is betting on a rate cut at the September central bank meeting.

The economy has remained relatively strong, despite inflation and high borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, but it is slowing. Wall Street is hoping the Fed can time its rate cuts to relieve pressure on the economy before it slows too much, but it also won't miss its goal of curbing inflation.

In the markets, Boeing is down slightly after being sanctioned by US investigators for sharing information about a federal investigation into the bursting of a door plug that left a gaping hole in a Boeing 737 Max 9.

Levi Strauss shares fell 15.4% before the opening bell Thursday after the jeans maker's second-quarter sales fell short of analysts' targets.

Walgreen's fell 15.7% after lowering the high end of its profit forecast due to continued pressure on the U.S. consumer.

Chipmaker Micron fell 5.5% after its latest forecast disappointed investors.

At noon in Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.5% and the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.3%. The German DAX was the only exception, up 0.2%.

In Asian trade, another round of measures to boost China's property market failed to improve market sentiment. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 2.1% to 17,716.47, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9% to 2,945.85.

Beijing became the latest city to cut its minimum down payment ratios and mortgage interest rates, starting Thursday, to help the real estate sector.

Other Chinese cities have taken similar steps, in line with national policies aimed at luring buyers back into a market that has stagnated since the government cracked down on excessive borrowing by developers. This caused dozens of these companies to default on their debts and the economic slowdown weighed on the entire economy, the second largest in the world.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index lost 0.8% to 39,341.54 amid concerns about further weakness in the Japanese yen.

The U.S. dollar was trading at 160.53 yen early Thursday, after breaching the 160 level a day earlier to hit its lowest level since late 1986. Japanese officials warned they could intervene in the market to counter this trend, which has both positive and negative effects. on the economy.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.3% to 7,759.60. Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.4% and Bangkok's SET fell 0.5%. Stocks rose in Mumbai, Jakarta and Singapore.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 34 cents to $81.24 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 32 cents to $84.79 a barrel.

The euro rose from $1.0681 to $1.0699.

A mostly quiet day of trading on Wednesday left Wall Street benchmarks near the all-time highs they set last week. The S&P 500 index rose 0.2%, even though about 65% of stocks in the benchmark index fell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.5%.