Futures lower as focus shifts to inflation data

US stock index futures fell on Wednesday as investors anticipated a crucial inflation data to determine if the Federal Reserve was effective in bringing down increasing costs.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is predicted to have increased 0.4% last month after increasing 0.1% in March, while the so-called core CPI (excluding volatile food and energy components) is expected to stay unchanged in April from the previous month. The Labour Department report will be announced at 12:30 GMT.

After a good US payrolls data on Friday, the likelihood of a rate decrease anytime soon plummeted, with traders now anticipating the central bank to keep rates at 5-5.25% until at least July.

In premarket trading, large-cap technology companies such as Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp each fell roughly 0.4%.

Short-term US Treasury bill yields climbed as talks in Washington over increasing the US debt ceiling continued.

Dow e-minis were down 34 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 4.5 points, or 0.11%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 21.5 points, or 0.16%, at 5:34 ET.

Oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum Corp fell 1.5% after its first-quarter earnings fell short of analysts’ estimates.

Livent Corp rose 4.3% after Australian lithium miner Allkem Ltd agreed to buy the U.S.-based chemical manufacturing firm to create a $10.6 billion firm.