US Stock Futures Point To Bleak Opening
US stock futures slipped today as worries regarding China applying brakes to combat accelerating prices took the front seat. While futures on S&P 500 slipped 2.9 points to 1142.80, those on Nasdaq 100 lost 3.25 points to 1915.50. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 13 points.
China today declared its Chinese consumer price index, which tracks inflation at the retail level. Driven by a jump in food prices, the index climbed 2.7% in February. Reports also indicated that lending by Chinese banks rose $102.5 billion in February and money supply, as measured by M2, moved up 25.5%.
MarketWatch cited Diana Choyleva of Lombard Street Research as saying, "Today's monetary and inflation data out of China do not make for comfortable reading…Given the force of the monetary expansion, it is highly likely that the People's Bank of China will have to tighten too much because it left it too late." The Shanghai Composite finished the session up 0.1%, while most Europe indexes saw modest losses.
Investors in the US are awaiting January trade data and weekly jobless claims. In equities, Devon Energy Corp (NYSE: DVN) is likely to be in focus today after selling its assets in Brazil, Gulf of Mexico and Azerbaijan to BP PLC (NYSE: BP) for $7 billion. It has also bought half of its BP oil sands project in Canada in a $500 million deal.
Read more from Benzinga's Markets.
