Shares mostly rose today, the Associated Press reports, as investors await the release of U.S. consumer price data and keep a cautious watch on the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group, Hamas. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were up 0.2%.
A report on U.S. consumer prices is due later today, a day after a report on wholesale inflation came in hotter than expected. Economists said that may not be enough to force the Fed to raise its main interest rate again.
Forecasts suggest consumer inflation eased again last month, though the decline might have slowed since summer, a reminder that the outsize price pressures of the past two years will take more time to cool.
Tensions in the Middle East also are under the spotlight. As air strikes devastated Gaza, Israel was preparing for a possible ground assault.
Oil prices have given back much of their strong gains from earlier this week, triggered by fighting in Gaza. Though the area doesn’t produce much oil, the worry is that the violence could spill into the politics around the crude market and hurt the flow of petroleum.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 72 cents to $84.21 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange today. Brent crude, the international standard, added 95 cents to $86.77 per barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 149.10 Japanese yen from 149.07 yen.
