Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500 futures climb after Nvidia boost, with CPI inflation data, big bank earnings on deck
Tech led as US stock futures rose on Tuesday, with a China green-light for Nvidia (NVDA) lifting spirits in the wait for a key consumer inflation print and for big banks to kick off earnings season.
S&P 500 futures (ES=F) moved up 0.3%, while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) climbed 0.5%, buoyed by gains for AI chipmaker Nvidia. But Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) slipped, down roughly 0.2% on the heels of closing gains for the major gauges.
Nvidia said it hopes to resume sales of its key AI chips to China soon, having received assurances from the US government that it will be granted licences. The dramatic reversal in the Trump administration’s earlier stance on export curbs — part of its trade standoff with Beijing — helped lift shares almost 5% in premarket.
President Trump’s trade policy also looms over the June consumer inflation report, which is expected to show the first real signs of a tariff-driven uptick on prices when it is released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Consumer Price Index headline reading is forecast to rise 0.3% month over month and 2.4% year over year. Both would represent accelerations from May’s data.
Read more: The latest on Trump’s tariffs
Meanwhile, big banks unofficially kick off earnings season Tuesday morning, with JPMorgan (JPM), Citi (C), and Wells Fargo (WFC) all on the docket. The banks will look to assure investors that the tariff-driven turmoil of Q2 is in the rearview mirror and that the wind is at their backs for the second half of this year.
Read more: Full earnings coverage in our live blog
The backdrop to both events are Trump’s escalatory moves on tariffs over the past week. He has spent the last several days threatening key trade partners, most notably Canada, the European Union, and Mexico, with high duties from Aug. 1. The president said Monday that he is open to continue talking but also repeated a recent refrain that the letters he has sent to trade partners “are the deals.”
The tariffs drama and the inflation and earnings pictures also factor into the Federal Reserve’s next move on interest rates, coming in just over two weeks. The vast majority of bets are on a hold this month, followed by a rate cut in September.
Of course, Trump has spent the past few weeks pushing for more cuts. He and his allies are beefing up their criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, both on rates and on new fronts, like the Fed’s headquarters renovation, with one top contender to replace Powell suggesting it could be grounds for his removal.
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