STOCK MARKET NEWS: Disney shares rise lifting Dow, producer prices jump, gas below $4

U.S. equity futures were trading higher ahead of the release of another report on inflation.

The major futures indexes suggest a gain of 0.3% when the opening bell rings on Wall Street.

Oil prices gained Thursday, adding to the rise in the previous session on supply concerns.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded at $92.00 per barrel. Brent crude futures were at $98.00 a barrel.

The average prices for a gallon of gasoline slipped below $4 for the first time since March.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will report wholesale inflation data for July. The producer price index is expected to rise 0.2% month-over-month according to Refinitiv forecasts.

Year-over-year, prices paid by wholesalers are anticipated to jump 10.4% in July. 

The Labor Department will release its tally of new claims for unemployment benefits
for last week, expected to show a tight jobs market that is cooling off. Expectations are for 263,000, up slightly from the previous week.

Shares of Walt Disney were 7% higher in premarket trading after the company said it edged past Netflix with a total of 221 million streaming subscribers at the end of the most recent quarter. Prices for Disney+ and Hulu will rise for both platforms in December.

Disney added 14.4 million Disney+ customers, beating the consensus of 10 million expected by analysts  Disney posted adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.09, up 36% from a year earlier.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 2.4% and China’s Shanghai Composite index gained 1.6%. Tokyo was closed for a holiday.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 87.77 points Wednesday to 4,210.24, hitting its highest levels since early May. It is now nearly 15% above its mid-June low.

The Nasdaq composite, whose many high-growth and expensive-looking stocks have been particularly vulnerable to interest rates, jumped 2.9% to 12,854.80. It’s up more than 20% from June.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6% to 33,309.51.