U.S. stock index futures inched higher early Thursday as falling oil prices and softer inflation expectations steadied sentiment before July producer-price inflation data, a wholesale price gauge, due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Brent crude fell 1.9% after six straight sessions of gains as investors weighed weaker global demand prospects and higher U.S. crude stocks, even as tensions between Iran and the United States kept traffic through the Strait of Hormuz severely curtailed. The market setup followed benign July consumer inflation data that increased expectations the Federal Reserve (U.S. central bank) will leave interest rates unchanged, with money markets pricing a 66% chance of a pause versus roughly even odds of a hike or hold a day earlier. At 05:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis (futures contracts tied to the Dow) rose 128 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 E-minis gained 12.5 points, or 0.16%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis added 5.5 points, or 0.02%. In premarket trading, Dell Technologies rose 4% and HP gained 1.8% after Lenovo's earnings beat expectations, while Cisco Systems fell 6% despite forecasting fiscal 2027 revenue above Wall Street estimates and Cerebras Systems slid more than 18% after missing quarterly revenue forecasts. Alphabet, Amazon and Apple were each up about 0.5%. With more than 430 S&P 500 companies already having reported for the quarter ended June, strong earnings across several sectors have helped lift U.S. equities after a rocky start to the second half of 2026, leaving the Dow and S&P 500 near record highs and the Nasdaq about 2% below its all-time peak after rebounding from a drop of more than 10% two weeks earlier on renewed enthusiasm for the AI trade.