US stock futures pointed in different directions on Tuesday morning, with Dow futures climbing while Nasdaq-100 futures slipped, as investors positioned ahead of a closely watched inflation report.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose about 0.4%, or roughly 190 points, in early trading. S&P 500 futures were close to flat, while Nasdaq-100 futures fell about 0.4%. The mixed premarket session followed a strong Monday, when all three major indexes closed sharply higher. In early trading, Dow futures stood near 52,682, S&P 500 futures near 7,573.75 and Nasdaq-100 futures near 27,908.50.

Money Moves Out of Chips and Into Cyclical Sectors

Investors are shifting cash out of semiconductor and tech hardware companies, which face infrastructure bottlenecks and heightened regulatory scrutiny, particularly around AI data centers. The capital is rotating into cyclical parts of the market, such as financials and industrials, areas that traders view as undervalued. Cyclical stocks are those whose revenues tend to rise and fall with the broader economy, a profile that sets them apart from the high-growth technology names seeing outflows.

Such a rotation is unusual ahead of a major data release. Traders typically hold cash and remain cautious in the run-up to reports like the Consumer Price Index.

Nvidia shares rebounded slightly on Tuesday morning after dropping more than 4% in the previous session. Investors continue to react to the chipmaker's board investigation into CEO Jensen Huang, which followed reports of an affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

Oil prices also moved lower. Brent crude, the international benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, each dropped more than 2%. The pullback in crude is helping ease inflation worries.

What the Inflation Report Could Show

The Consumer Price Index report is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the CPI tracks the average change in prices that consumers pay for a basket of goods and services and is among the most closely watched readings on US inflation. Economists expect overall prices to rise 0.3% from a month earlier, while core inflation, which excludes food and energy, is forecast to ease to 0.2%. Some analysts anticipate the report will show cooling price growth.

TODAY: One LAST CPI to cue a year-end RALLY or a SELL OFF. The last CPI report before the Fed's December meeting will be out in a few hours. There will be no official YoY reading, as the 2025 shutdown left a gap in last October's data. So all eyes are on the MONTHLY numbers.… pic.twitter.com/bEVYZ64SeY
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) November 10, 2026

There will be no official year-over-year figure this time around because the 2025 government shutdown left a gap in last October's data, putting the focus squarely on the monthly numbers.

Markets already expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December, with traders assigning roughly an 80% probability to a hike. A hotter-than-expected reading could cement that move and trigger selling in rate-sensitive megacap stocks, although the shock may be limited given that expectations are already elevated.

The bond market's reaction will matter. A cooler print could pull Treasury yields lower and spark a rally in battered tech and chip stocks. A reading above forecasts, by contrast, would push yields higher and strengthen bets on tighter policy into next year, potentially accelerating the move away from high-growth stocks. Treasury yields serve as a benchmark for borrowing costs across the economy, so their post-report direction will be watched closely.

Earnings Season Still Running

Third-quarter earnings season is also in full swing. CoreWeave, D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing are all scheduled to report results after the bell on Tuesday. CoreWeave operates AI-focused cloud infrastructure, while D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing are quantum computing companies.