U.S. stock futures rose slightly Wednesday, adding to the previous session’s gains ahead of the release of key inflation data, which could convince the Federal Reserve to shortly end its cycle of interest rate hikes.

By 07:10 ET (11:10 GMT), the Dow futures contract was up 30 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures traded 7 points, or 0.2% higher, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 30 points, or 0.2%.

U.S. June CPI in spotlight
All eyes Wednesday are on the consumer inflation report for June, due for release at 08:30 ET (12:30 GMT), with investors looking for clues of the extent of additional monetary tightening the Federal Reserve will authorize this year.

Market participants have largely priced in that the Fed will hike in July as inflation remains above the central bank’s medium-term target, but a great deal of uncertainty still exists about how many more hikes are left in the tank.

The headline consumer price index is expected to have risen by 3.1% in June, after May’s 4% increase, which would be the slowest annual increase since March 2021, with a 0.3% monthly increase. The annual core rate is seen falling to 5% from 5.3%, dropping for the third consecutive month.

Optimism grips Wall Street
Wednesday’s expected gains will continue the positive start to the new week, as the three benchmark indices closed substantially higher Tuesday on the back of comments from Federal Reserve policy makers suggesting that the rate-hiking cycle may soon be at an end.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained over 300 points, or 0.9%, while the broad-based S&P 500 closed 0.7% higher, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite up 0.6%.

More Fed officials are slated to speak Wednesday, including Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester.

Arm looking to Nvidia for IPO investment – report
In corporate news, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) will be in the spotlight after the Financial Times reported that Arm is in negotiations with the U.S. chipmaker over it becoming an anchor investor in the U.K.-based chip designer’s planned initial public offering.

Arm hopes that Nvidia, which earlier this year became the first chipmaker to touch a more than $1 trillion valuation, will take a long-term stake at its IPO stage.

Elsewhere, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) $69 billion merger with Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) was given a massive boost Tuesday after a federal court judge rejected U.S. antitrust concerns over the deal.

Crude stable; EIA predicts higher demand
Oil prices stabilized Wednesday, with predictions of higher demand by the U.S. Energy Information Administration balancing out higher U.S. crude stockpiles.

The EIA released its short-term energy outlook on Tuesday, and projected demand would outpace supply by 100,000 barrels a day in 2023 and by 200,000 barrels a day in 2024.

This comes as major oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, have announced additional output cuts for August, while the U.S. dollar fell to two-month lows, supporting the oil market.

However, data from the American Petroleum Institute cooled the rally as U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly grew by over 2 million barrels in the week to July 7. The official numbers from the Energy Information Administration are due later in the session.

By 07:10 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% higher at $74.87 a barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 0.1% to $79.33.

Additionally, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,939.50/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.1020.