Stock futures are slightly higher ahead of key inflation data

In pre-market trading Wednesday, the U.S stock futures were slightly higher as Wall Street braced for a key inflation print out of Washington.

Futures tied to the benchmark S&P 500 index went up 0.3%, while contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up by 70 points, or about 0.2%. Nasdaq futures climbed by 0.4%.

The consumer price index CPI for July was set to be released at 8: 30 a.m. The latest print is likely to reflect the moderation of the previous month, mainly due to lower gas prices. The figure is expected to show that inflation rose again at the highest rate in four decades.

The broadest measure of CPI went up by 8.7% last month, a figure that would be a little less than 9.1% in June, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. CPI is expected to show an increase of 0.2% over the month, compared to 1.3% in the previous month-over-month reading.

The outlook for inflation remains the primary concern for investors, according to a note by Wilmington Trust Chief Investment Officer Tony Roth and Chief Economist Luke Tilley. The persistent inflation is weighing on sentiment for consumers and businesses, but economic data remains mixed and concerns are raised that aggressive Fed policy could push the U.S. into a recession. Elon Musk dumped $6.9 billion worth of Tesla TSLA stock late Tuesday after the electric carmaker's Chief Executive Officer said he was done selling shares of the company. In a post on Tuesday, Musk said he wanted to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock in the event he sacked Twitter TWTR On the earnings front, shares of Coinbase COIN fell by 5% after the exchange reported second-quarter earnings Tuesday afternoon that fell short of Wall Street estimates and that user growth is set to fall further the rest of the year.

The gaming industry sees a slowdown in the pandemic-fueled boom and consumers scale back their discretionary spending and the Roblox RBLX took a hit early Wednesday after a hard miss on results for the second quarter. Shares plunged nearly 15% ahead of the open.