S&P 500 futures moved slightly lower on Wednesday after the latest personal consumption expenditures price index reading revealed that inflation remains elevated.

Futures tied to the broad market index declined 0.1%, while Nasdaq-100 futures were down 0.4%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 20 points, or 0.04%.

July’s personal consumption expenditures price index — a monthly report detailing changes in prices of goods and services and the Federal Reserve’s preferred metric of inflation — showed a month-over-month and year-over-year increase of 0.2% and 3.7%, respectively. Both figures were 0.1% above what economists polled by Dow Jones had expected.

However, core PCE, which excludes food and energy prices, came in as expected with a gain of 0.2% on the month and 3.3% annually.

“With markets continuing to be sensitive to any data that could increase the odds of rate hikes, today’s mild upside inflation surprise and relative economic strength weren’t necessarily what investors — or the Fed — wanted to see,” said Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “It wasn’t enough to shift the balance for September’s FOMC meeting, but if subsequent data point in the same direction, the Fed may feel more pressure to move off the sidelines.”

The report comes with the bond market in focus. While U.S. Treasury yields were flat following the report’s release, they hit multi-year highs last week, with the 30-year bond rate reaching levels not seen in nearly 20 years. On Tuesday, yields fell broadly, as the 10-year yield lost almost 8 basis points on the day.

Nvidia, Jackson Hole ahead
Nvidia is set to report its earnings for the second quarter on Wednesday after the bell. Wall Street projects earnings per share of $2.09 on $92.28 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

The report could be a bellwether for the broader market, given the chipmaker is the largest S&P 500 member, with a market cap of more than $5 trillion.

Investors are also eyeing Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s speech on Friday at the Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Though, some have noted Warsh could remain tight-lipped ahead of the Fed’s monetary policy decision ahead of September.

“Given his approach to the June and July press conferences, we think it is unlikely that he would move straight to a deep dive into the current economic outlook and its implications for policy over the balance of 2026. Instead, we expect him to spend the bulk of his remarks on big-picture themes with an emphasis on the supply side and on how these topics will be addressed by the Task Forces,” Piper Sandler’s head of central bank policy Kurt Lewis wrote to clients.