Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 25, 2026. NYSEDow futures rose early Thursday as traders awaited the first of two inflation reports due this week. Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 89 points, or 0.17%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1%, but Nasdaq-100 futures fell 0.17%. The action comes after the major averages fell for the third day in a row. The Dow Jones lost just over 400 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6%. Higher Treasury yields kept the US stock market under pressure after the Treasury Department said it would buy back up to $6 billion in longer-term debt, triple the usual amount. Less than a month ago, the Treasury said it would more than double the size of its $2 billion government debt buybacks. Following the move, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to a session high of 4.857%, its highest level since November 2023. “The size of this program remains well below what would be necessary to materially move yields on the long end,” Tobin Marcus, head of U.S. policy and Wolfe Research, said in a note. “It has been clear since the expanded bond buybacks were first announced last month that they were intended to send a signal to the markets, but in our view, the nature of that signal was murky.” Rising oil prices amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran also weighed on stocks. International Brent crude futures advanced 3.4% to close at $101.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures advanced 3.3% to close at $96.05. Both recorded the highest closing prices since May. The recent rise in oil prices comes as traders set their sights on two inflation reports due out this week. The August producer price index, a measure of wholesale inflation, is released Thursday morning. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect a 0.3% monthly gain and a 5.3% year-over-year advance. The consumer price index is closely watched on Friday, with the Dow Jones consensus calling for a 0.4% jump in August and a 3.4% gain over 12 months. Both figures feed into the Fed’s primary gauge of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures price index, which won’t be released until after the Fed’s interest rate vote on Sept. 16. Other notable economic reports include weekly initial jobless claims and existing home sales in August. Asia-Pacific markets closed mixed on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.2%, while South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.25%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 1.23% in its last hour of trading, while mainland China’s CSI 300 lost 0.53%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell more than 1%. In Europe, stocks traded lower, with the regional Stoxx 600 index falling 0.1% in early trading ahead of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy update. The ECB is widely expected to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points as inflation remains above target due to the energy shock from the Iran war. “We believe global stock markets can continue to rise despite rising energy costs,” UBS strategists said in a note Thursday morning. “If the impact of rising energy worsens, we would like both the US and European healthcare sectors to have defensive characteristics along with structural growth opportunities. In Europe, we also favor industrial, banking and IT sectors. In Asia, Taiwan could face a drag from higher energy prices, but we believe its huge exposure to the structural AI theme should cushion the impact.”
