Traders work on the floor as a screen displays the logo for Swedish fintech Klarna, during the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., Sept. 10, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
S&P 500 futures are flat on Wednesday night, following another day of record highs, as Wall Street awaited a key consumer inflation gauge.
Futures tied to the broad index traded near flat, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 35 points, or 0.08%.
Wednesday night’s action follows a second straight finish at all-time closing highs for the S&P 500, fueled by Oracle‘s monster rally. The Nasdaq Composite finished marginally above its flatline, while the Dow lost more than 200 points.
Investors cheered Oracle’s growth outlook for its cloud business. Shares of the stock surged about 36% in the session, marking its best day since 1992 and adding $244 billion in market cap.
Traders also saw it as a positive indicator for the artificial intelligence trade at large. AI-related stocks such as Broadcom, AMD and Micron also rallied, offering a bright spot for investors in an otherwise weak day.
Those moves come as investors await the August consumer price index due at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday morning. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting the index to rise 0.3% on the month for an annual gain of 2.9%. Excluding volatile food and energy, the so-called core CPI is slated to increase 0.3% from July and 3.1% year over year.
That comes after the producer price index showed an unexpected decline of 0.1% on the month. The PPI rose 2.6% on a 12-month basis.
“The PPI’s signal is hard to ignore,” said Julien Lafargue, chief market strategist at Barclays Private Bank. “Unless CPI delivers a significant upside shock, investors are likely to maintain their dovish outlook.”
Traders will also monitor jobless claims and federal budget data due Thursday. Kroger will report earnings before the bell, followed by Adobe after the market closes.
