US stock futures steady as Wall St falls after CPI data; Q2 earnings awaited

Investing.com-- U.S. stock index futures steadied in evening deals on Thursday as Wall Street was slapped with profit-taking even as inflation showed signs of cooling, with focus now turning to the second quarter earnings season. 

S&P 500 Futures steadied at 5,641.50 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures were flat at 20,444.25 points by 19:03 ET (23:03 GMT). Dow Jones Futures rose slightly to 40,123.0 points. 

Soft CPI data ramps up Sept rate cut bets 

Consumer price index inflation read softer than expected for June, which saw investors ramp up bets that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates from September.

Headline CPI grew a slower-than-expected 3% year-on-year in June, while core CPI grew 3.3%, also less than expected. 

The reading saw traders pricing in an over 85% chance the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in September, a sharp jump from the 65% chance seen a day ago, according to CME Fedwatch. 

But the softer inflation, coupled with other middling readings on the U.S. economy in recent weeks sparked some concerns that growth was cooling. 

Wall St sinks as tech faces profit-taking 

But despite increased optimism over interest rate cuts, Wall Street indexes retreated from record highs on Thursday, hit chiefly by outsized losses in technology shares.

The losses came as investors collected a measure of recent profits in the sector, which had steadily risen in recent weeks on hype over artificial intelligence.

Market darling NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) fell 0.8% in aftermarket trade following a 5.6% slump on Thursday. 

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 2% after tumbling 8.5% after a report said the firm’s unveiling of autonomous taxis will be delayed to October from August. 

Tech was the biggest weight on Wall Street on Thursday, after driving a stellar stock rally over the past few weeks.

The S&P 500 fell 0.9% to finish at 5,584.54 points, while the NASDAQ Composite slid 1.9% to 18,288.62 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% 39,753.75 points. 

Q2 earnings season begins with banks 

Market focus was now squarely on the second-quarter earnings season, which is set to begin in earnest with a slew of key bank earnings on Friday.

JPMorgan Chase&Co (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo &Company (NYSE:WFC), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) are set to report earnings through the day. Next week, majors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) are set to report earnings on Monday and Tuesday. 

Focus will largely be on whether corporate earnings were impacted by high interest rates and sticky inflation, which were seen causing some cooling in the U.S. economy in the second quarter.