U.S. Futures with a decline before the opening of markets

US stock index futures fell before markets opened on Thursday after major stock indexes reported gains for the third day in a row, as traders bet that the economic impact of the omicron variant will not be as serious as originally thought.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 148 points, or 0.4%. The futures of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell 0.4%.

Several travel-related stocks, which brought the market up all week, were lower on Thursday afternoon. Shares of Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line fell more than 1% before the market, although both stocks are still performing better for the week. Shares of Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands fell 2% and 1%, respectively. The airlines were also inches lower.

Separately, shares of Rent The Runway fell 10% during pre-market trading, after rising losses and lower subscriber growth before the last quarter’s pandemic.

However, there were some positive moves. CVS won 3% after issuing optimistic guidelines before the investor’s day. Home retailer RH jumped about 8% after reporting good profits and improving its revenue forecast.

The moves come a day before the important news of inflation, as the Ministry of Labor on Friday published the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect an annual growth rate of 6.7%. If this is the case, it will be the biggest move since June 1982.

Federal Reserve officials are expected to respond to the outbreak of inflation by announcing next week that they will begin to withdraw their economic aid.

The first step will be to accelerate the reduction in monthly purchases of bonds from the central bank, as markets expect the Fed to double the reduction to $ 30 billion. This, in turn, could pave the way for raising interest rates as early as the spring of 2022 and mark the Fed’s latest policy under President Jerome Powell.

During regular trading on Wednesday, the Dow and S&P 500 rose 0.1% and 0.3% respectively, each recording gains for the third day in a row. S&P’s profit for the last three days is the strongest for the year, according to MKM Partners.

Nasdaq Composite rose 0.64%, also registering a third day of profit. Apple had the most positive impact on the index, while Nvidia had the biggest resistance.

The action was boosted after Pfizer and BioNTech said on Wednesday morning that a booster dose of their vaccine provided a high level of protection against the new version of omicron.

With Wednesday’s profit, the S&P 500 is now just 0.9% below its all-time high for the day of November 22nd.

Ed Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda, said the market was on hold ahead of Friday’s inflation report, which could “fuel extra bets on raising the Fed’s interest rates.” Economists expect the report to show that prices rose 0.7 percent in November month-on-month, according to Dow Jones estimates.

“While growth and labor markets have given us reason to be optimistic about the economy, inflation is also hot and at a 30-year high,” UBS wrote in a recent note to customers. “With the introduction of the omicron option in the picture, investors are now wondering what monetary policy will look like in the future. The pandemic has already significantly increased uncertainty about the economic outlook, “the company added, noting that its main option is that the Fed will be patient.

There are some notable earnings reports on Thursday, including from Oracle, Broadcom and Lululemon, all of which are reported after the market closes.