Futures edge higher as focus shifts to inflation data, earnings

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday as investors awaited inflation data to gauge the Federal Reserves next policy moves, while caution prevailed ahead of the quarterly earnings season.

Hopes that the Fed will soon end its aggressive monetary policy tightening have helped the main U.S. equity benchmarks stabilize in April after a selloff last month that was triggered by the collapse of two U.S. mid-sized lenders.

A strong labor market report on Friday, however, lifted bets that the U.S. central bank will increase rates by 25 basis points in May, with money market traders pricing in a nearly 70% chance of such a move, according to CME Groups Fedwatch tool.

All eyes will be on the inflation data on Wednesday, with economists forecasting consumer prices to grow 5.2% in March after a 6.0% rise in February. However, core prices are seen rising 5.6%, a slightly faster pace compared with the 5.5% growth in February.

Big U.S. banks Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co will kick off the first-quarter earnings season. Investors will be scrutinizing the earnings reports for clues on the overall health of the banking sector.

Analysts expect first-quarter profits at S&P 500 companies to fall 5.2% year-on-year, a stark reversal from the 1.4% annual growth expected at the beginning of the year, according to Refinitiv data.

At 5:56 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 51 points, or 0.15%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 44.75 points, or 0.34%.

Shares of crypto-related companies such as Coinbase Global Inc, Riot Platforms Inc and Marathon Digital Holdings Inc climbed between 3.0% and 4.2% as bitcoin breached the key $30,000 level for the first time in 10 months.

National CineMedia Inc soared 91.7% after AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc disclosed a stake in the theater-focused advertising company.

U.S.-listed shares of Hexo Corp plunged 22.0% after Tilray Brands Inc said it would buy the Canadian cannabis company for $56 million. Tilrays shares also fell 5.8%.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)