Daily US Market News
What Investors Need to Know Before Thursday's Market Open
By Ali Merchant2 min read
U.S. Futures Tick Higher After On-Target July CPI; Tech Earnings and Cisco Demand Drive Market Focus
What Investors Need to Know Before Thursday's Market Open
U.S. futures higher: Dow futures +152 pts (+0.28%), S&P 500 futures +15.75 pts (+0.2%), Nasdaq-100 futures +27.25 pts (+0.1%) at 07:53 ET.
July CPI met expectations: headline +0.1% m/m; core inflation 2.5% y/y — easing near-term Fed hike fears.
Money markets cut odds of a Sept. 25 bp Fed hike to 40% (from 67% a week ago).
Prior session: S&P 500 +0.26%, Nasdaq Composite +0.5%, Dow -0.04%; tech-led gains fueled by AI-linked names.
Cisco beat results and raised FY27 outlook on booming AI-driven demand but fell >5% premarket amid sky-high expectations; stock up >60% YTD.
Applied Materials earnings due after the close; Bloomberg consensus: EPS $3.42, sales $9.02B — semiconductor equipment in focus as AI chip demand surges.
Europe gains: Stoxx 600 +0.2%; DAX +0.5%, CAC 40 +0.2%; FTSE 100 -0.3% on weaker oil.
Oil down 2.1%: Brent $87.14/bbl, WTI $81.55/bbl on supply uncertainty and soft demand outlook.
Earnings movers: Coherent fell 4.4% despite beats; Cerebras plunged 19% after Q2 loss though backlog steady at $25B.
Next focus: July PPI due — expected cooling to 4.9% y/y and 0.2% m/m — will inform PCE outlook ahead of the Fed meeting.
August 12, 2026 | 8:50 AM EDT
July CPI Cools to 3.4%; Lumentum, Super Micro and CoreWeave Ignite AI Rally
Stock futures ticked higher after July's CPI came in as expected.
The consumer price index rose 3.4% year-over-year in July, matching economists' consensus.
Dow futures gained 0.3%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.9%—all slightly higher than before the report.
The 2-year Treasury yield fell before the release then bounced off its lows, finishing just under 4.2%.
Lumentum jumped 7.7% premarket after strong fiscal Q4 results as AI-driven demand for its optical networking products rises.
CoreWeave surged 19% following a narrower-than-expected loss and revenue that topped Q2 estimates.
Super Micro Computer rallied 9% premarket after Q4 earnings significantly beat Wall Street forecasts.
The strong results boosted other AI-related stocks: Coherent climbed 5.4%, Corning rose 2.9%, Marvell gained 3%, and SanDisk advanced 3.8%.
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Ali Merchant
Ali Merchant is a seasoned financial markets professional specializing in technical analysis, treasury & capital markets, trading, research, and fund management. He is Strategic Advisor at Musaffa and Founder of TWT Learning, which provides education, research, and advisory services to fund and hedge managers and family offices. Ali has traded FX, FX options, US stocks & options, indices, commodities, oil and metals futures, and holds a CMT charter with memberships in AAPTA and CMT, US & Canada. He has worked with ABN AMRO, Thomson Reuters/Refinitiv, MAK Allen & Day Capital, and Bridge Information Systems, produced TA reports for Bloomberg and Reuters, and trained 2,000+ market participants across North America, the GCC and Asia.