Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com

U.S. STOCK FUTURES STILL RED AFTER COOLER-THAN-EXPECTED CPI

The main U.S. equity index futures are lower on the day and roughly unchanged from where they were after the release of the latest data on U.S. consumer prices and jobless claims.

E-mini S&P 500 futures EScv1 are now down around 2% vs a loss of about 2% just before the numbers came out.

March headline CPI month-over-month and year-over-year came in cooler-than-expected. The month-over-month and year-over-year core prints were also below estimates.

Separately, initial jobless claims came as expected at 223k.

According to the CME's FedWatch Tool, the probability that the Fed sits on its hands and leaves its current target rate of 4.25%-4.50% unchanged at its May 6-7 FOMC meeting is now around 80% from 84% just before the data. The chance that the FOMC cuts rates by 25 basis points is now around 20% from 16%.

Looking out further out into 2025, the market is showing a bias for four rate cuts to occur, one in June, July, September and December, for a total of around 87.4 basis points.

The U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yield US10YT=RR is now around 4.35%. It was around 4.33% just before the numbers came out. The yield ended Wednesday at 4.3960%.

All S&P 500 index .SPX sector SPDR ETFs are quoted lower in premarket trade. Technology XLK.P, off about 3%, is posting the biggest decline.

The SPDR S&P regional banking ETF KRE.P is trading down just over 2%.

Regarding the inflation data, Max Wasserman, founder and senior portfolio manager at Miramar Capital, said:

"These numbers are meaningless, It's what hasn't been taken into account, i.e the fact of tariffs. The real important one is going be the next reading. It's a non-event right now."

Wasserman added: "The big concern is going be not only the tariffs, but whether we are going be in a stagflationary environment. It's going to be very hard to pinpoint. If you see a print out there that says inflation is still stubborn and growth slowing down, that's going to make people revise their five rate cuts."

Here is a premarket snapshot from around 08:57 a.m. EDT:

(Terence Gabriel, Pranav Kashyap)

*****

FOR THURSDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:

EARNINGS SEASON "MARKET'S MOMENT OF TRUTH" - SAXO - CLICK HERE

WILL THE "BUY EUROPE" TRADE RAISE ITS HEAD? - CLICK HERE

MARKET WATCHERS MULL RALLY'S LONGEVITY - CLICK HERE

EUPHORIC MARKETS - CLICK HERE

BEFORE THE BELL: BOUNCING LIKE IN COVID TIMES - CLICK HERE

SIGNS OF TROUBLE IN THE RELIEF RALLY - CLICK HERE