Stock futures trade mixed after lackluster session
Investors are looking ahead to Thursday's report on consumer prices
How long-term investors should focus their portfolios
Hennessy Focus Fund co-portfolio manager Ira Rothberg points out his market picks.
U.S. equity futures are trading mixed ahead of Wednesday's opening bell.
The major futures indexes suggest a decline of 0.1% on the Dow.
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Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday after China reported a big jump in producer prices at a time when inflation is a top investor concern.
The next U.S. read on inflation comes Thursday in the form of the Consumer Price Index.
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China's producer price index, which measures prices of raw goods and services, jumped 9% from a year earlier in May, the fastest increase since 2008, during the global financial crisis, and above analysts' forecasts, the government said.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4%, Hong Kong shed 0.1% and China's Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.3%.
In Europe, London's FTSE is down 0.6%, Germany's DAX was off 0.5% and France's CAC slipped 0.1%.
U.S. stock indexes meandered to another uneven finish Tuesday.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 44782 | -128.65 | -0.29% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 6047.15 | +14.77 | +0.24% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 19403.947849 | +185.78 | +0.97% |
The S&P 500 inched up less than 0.1% to 4,227.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% to 34,599.82, while the Nasdaq mustered a 0.3% gain, closing at 13,924.91.
Wendy’s jumped 25.9% as it appeared to join a batch of companies favored by individual investors taking cues from social media forums. Clover Health Investments soared 85.8%. Other companies whose stock values have gyrated sporadically include AMC Entertainment, Blackberry and GameStop.
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Cryptocurrencies were trading higher Wednesday morning. Bitcoin and other popular digital currencies, including Ethereum and Dogecoin, all rose, according to Coindesk. Bitcoin gained more than 6% to $34,383.
Shares in Fastly, an internet cloud services provider, climbed 10.8% after it said it had addressed an internal problem that caused dozens of websites around the globe to go down briefly, including the home page of Britain’s government and The New York Times.
As investors ponder the state of the recovery, the World Bank upgraded its outlook for global growth this year to 5.6% this year, up from the 4.1% it estimated in January. Last year, the global economy contracted 3.5%.
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In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 13 cents to $70.16 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It picked up 82 cents to $70.05 per barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 13 cents to $72.35 per barrel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.