Wall Street set to ease its way into the new trading week

Ahead of the bell

Wall Street is easing into the week rather than charging at it, with futures barely moving despite the major indexes sitting within touching distance of record highs.

Dow futures slipped 0.1%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 contracts nudged higher after a winning week.

The hesitancy is understandable given what is coming.

Wednesday brings the consumer price index, the reading that could settle an argument the Federal Reserve is still having with itself over whether to raise rates as the Middle East oil shock feeds through to prices.

Friday’s weak jobs report took some heat out of that debate, though policymakers have made clear a hot inflation print would put a rise back on the table.

Brent is trading around $84 a barrel amid another round of will-they, won’t-they over the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran teasing that a deal is very close.

Earnings are thinner now, but CoreWeave, Nebius, Cerebras and Super Micro will all report on the state of the AI build-out.