Wall Street poised for muted start after mixed close Monday as inflation data awaited

7.20am: Wall Street set to start flat

Wall Street futures are trading around flat on Tuesday as traders eye the US consumer price index inflation data for August, which will be released at 8:30am ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average are up around 23 points, while the S&P 500 futures are up around three. Contracts for the tech laden Nasdaq index are up around a point.

On Monday, stocks closed mixed and the Dow Jones snapped a five-day losing streak. The DJIA increased by 262 points, or 0.76%, to 34,869, while the S&P 500 rose 0.23% to 4,468. The Nasdaq dropped  0.07% to 15,105.

“US stock markets showed growth-value divergence: the Nasdaq slipped and the Dow and the S&P 500 rallied as the market attempted to consolidate after a run of five straight losses,” commented Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, in a note on Tuesday.

“We saw a bit of a case of futures pumping, cash dumping: i.e. futures rallying but the market selling off on the cash open, which is never a good setup for the market. 

“Futures are weaker today, whilst the US dollar is weaker, sitting in the middle of the recent range, after running into resistance at 92.85 area for the second time in a week,” he added.

This week it seems markets are showing cautious optimism this week that the economy will recover after mounting fears last week on the Delta variant.

Also in the mix, however, and affecting sentiment, is the idea that the Federal Reserve will soon begin scaling back its asset purchases and begin its much-talked about tapering program.

Story by ProactiveInvestors