North American Morning Briefing: Stock Futures Rise Ahead of PPI Inflation Report

Stock futures were edging up Thursday as investors awaited further

inflation data for more clues on the Federal Reserve's interest rates path.

July's producer price index is scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, as markets are still digesting last month's consumer price index, which was published on Wednesday.

"U.S. consumer prices increased just 0.1% month-on-month in July, suggesting that inflationary pressure from the earlier energy-price shock is moderating, while recent weakness in the labour market has further reduced the case for immediate tightening," MUFG said. Investors now see a 66% chance that officials hold rates steady when they meet next month, according to CME Group.

"The idea of a delayed Fed rate hike is giving a fresh boost to equity markets, along with a strong positive reaction to neocloud providers' strong revenue growth," Swissquote said.

Oil prices fell Thursday as investors assessed a weaker demand outlook and continued to monitor developments in the Middle East, though talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz remain stalled.

Stocks to watch

A.P. Moller-Maersk raised its guidance despite the conflict in the Middle East. Shares were up over 7% in Denmark.

Bending Spoons, Birkenstock, YETI: The companies are all set to report earnings today before the market opens. Chip giant Applied Materials will report after the closing bell.

Cisco posted a jump in net income in the July quarter as it continued to receive billions in orders from AI hyperscalers. Shares edged up premarket.

StubHub tumbled over 13% premarket after the company failed to turn a profit in the second quarter due to climbing costs, despite surging revenue from the World Cup.

Watch For:

U.S. PPI for July; U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims

Today's Top Headlines/Must Reads:

- The Jobless Boom Has Arrived

- Chinese Censorship Is Leaking Into Answers From American AI

- Inflation Protection Is on Sale

MARKET WRAPS Forex:

The dollar rose to a two-week high against a basket of currencies. Unexciting U.S. inflation data for July left the dollar with little sense of direction ahead of the Fed's Jackson Hole Symposium on August 27-29, ING said.

The euro traded flat. The currency could strengthen modestly against the dollar by year-end as the Fed is likely to refrain from raising interest rates, ING said.

Sterling fell as concerns about the Middle East conflict overshadowed data showing the U.K. economy grew in line with expectations in the second quarter.

Bonds:

Treasury yields fell after Wednesday's U.S. inflation data showed prices eased in July, in line with forecasts, reducing the likelihood of the Fed raising interest rates next month.

Energy:

In early trading, Brent crude was down 1.5%, while WTI futures declined 1.6%.

The IEA estimates a deficit of 1.8 million barrels a day in the third quarter as higher fuel prices weigh on consumption, while OPEC also cut its demand-growth forecast.

Metals:

Gold prices eased in early trading after rising in the previous session, as U.S. inflation data came in line with expectations, reinforcing bets that the Fed will keep rates on hold in September.

The precious metal was likely to continue serving as a potential hedge against currency weakness and the risks associated with persistently high government debt and fiscal deficits, said T. Rowe Price.

Iron ore

Iron ore prices were flat in early trade. End-user consumption is recovering from low levels, but weak steelmaker profitability is limiting the scope for a meaningful improvement in ore demand, Baocheng Futures said.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

Maersk Raises Guidance on Higher Earnings, Increased Visibility

Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk raised its full-year guidance on the back of higher earnings and improved visibility for the rest of the year despite the conflict in the Middle East.

Maersk said it now targets underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the year of between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion, ahead of its previous target range of $8 billion to $10 billion.

Vanguard Conquered the ETF World. Where It's Aiming Next.

When Salim Ramji became CEO two years ago, Vanguard Group had long been one of the investing world's biggest players, with $9 trillion of customer assets. Today, Vanguard has jumped to $13 trillion. Its flagship exchange-traded fund, Vanguard S&P 500 (known by its ticker VOO), recently became the first ETF to hit $1 trillion in assets. And in June, it temporarily surpassed BlackRock's iShares as the largest ETF provider in the U.S. Now the two firms are in a dead heat, each with some $4.7 trillion in ETF assets.

Ramji, who joined from BlackRock, is quick to acknowledge that the foundations of Vanguard's success were laid down by his predecessors, especially Jack Bogle, who founded the company in 1975. Bogle was a tireless advocate for low-cost, passive investing in index funds. That strategy triumphed, and so did Vanguard. Ramji's challenge is very different from Bogle's, but no less formidable: Achieve still further growth while keeping costs low and continuing to put investors first.

Adyen Shares Jump as Earnings Rise and Growth Accelerates

Shares in Adyen jumped after the Amsterdam-based payments provider posted a rise in first-half earnings.

In morning trade shares rose 9.3% to 995.2 euros but remain down nearly 28% over the year to date.

Lenovo's Revenue Beats Expectations on Robust AI Demand

Lenovo Group kicked off its fiscal year on a strong note with record-high revenue thanks to robust artificial-intelligence infrastructure demand and its resilient personal-computer business.

The world's largest personal-computer maker is increasingly being viewed as both an AI infrastructure and AI device play as it branches out beyond computers.

Inflation Protection Is on Sale

Investors are getting paid what seems like a lot to buy inflation protection for decades ahead. But longer-term bonds also come with longer-term risks.

Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS, are government-issued bonds that in the simplest terms pay a yield on top of the rate of inflation. In effect, they offer the protection that an investor's money can at least keep up with inflation, plus some extra.

Tariff Refunds Are Here-and Turbocharging Earnings

Tariff refunds have begun rolling in to big U.S. companies-in some cases providing a solid boost to earnings.

Contrary to warnings that the refund process could prove slow and messy, many companies appear to have received the money with remarkable speed. So far, over 40 S&P 500 companies have reported some $9.6 billion in refunds in the past quarter or so, including at least $2.1 billion in cash already received.

U.K. Economy Continues Robust Performance in Second Quarter

The British economy continued its resilient start to the year in the second quarter, growing faster than the U.S. despite the jump in energy prices and heightened uncertainty provoked by the war in the Middle East.

Gross domestic product growth was 0.4% in the three months through June, the U.K.'s statistics agency said Thursday, matching a consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Trump Says Hormuz Is Under U.S. Control. Few Ships Are Listening.

President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. has total control of the Strait of Hormuz. The reality on the water tells a different story.

Ship-tracking data shows that just 14 vessels on Tuesday crossed a waterway that routinely handled more than 130 a day before the war. Eleven of those ships took the route administered by Iran. Traffic was slow throughout July, with an average of 26 crossings a day, and in June, with 33 a day, as renewed Iranian attacks on ships cut short a deal to open the strait.

Every Day in Cuba Presents a New Challenge for Its Impoverished Residents

From one end of their 800-mile-long, crocodile-shaped Caribbean island to the other, Cubans are suffering through hot, sleepless nights and trudging through exhaustion and hunger by day.

Never before has the Communist island been so cut off from the world, strangled by a U.S. fuel blockade, more American sanctions and a government unable to keep the lights on. Food, water, medicine and other basics are difficult to access. Mountains of uncollected trash fill the streets of the crumbling capital, Havana.

What We Learned Tracing North Korea's Hidden Workforce Inside American Companies

North Korea has built a secret workforce inside American companies. Using stolen identities, AI tools and U.S. accomplices, its operatives have cheated their way into remote jobs in an effort to earn money for Kim Jong Un's regime. The FBI says there are thousands of them applying for jobs across America.

The Wall Street Journal's documentary, "Infiltrated: North Korea's Secret U.S. Workforce," follows a single cell of these operatives. Drawn from a trove of leaked data-browser history, emails, calendars and screen recordings pulled from the team's own computers-our yearlong investigation offers a rare look at how North Korea's undercover workers get hired.

How Trump's Ruse to Evade an Iranian Threat Unfolded on the Tarmac in Turkey

WASHINGTON-As President Trump's motorcade rushed through Turkey's capital to the airport, his security team had an urgent decision to make.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence in July had uncovered a threat by Iranian proxies to launch a lightweight, shoulder-fired missile at Trump's plane as he departed Ankara, according to U.S. and Middle East officials. In a worst-case scenario, a militant would evade tight security at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, stand about a half-mile away from the airport, and use a man-portable air-defense system, or Manpad, to strike the jet, said officials who have seen or been briefed on the intelligence.

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August 13, 2026 06:17 ET (10:17 GMT)

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