US stock futures hovered near steady levels on Friday (November 17) as investors looked to maintain this month’s gains.

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US stocks

Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21 points, or 0.06%. Futures on the S&P 500 rose 0.06%, while futures on the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.09%.

Yesterday, the Dow Jones index ended the session down 0.13%, ending a four-session winning streak. The S&P 500 added 0.12% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.07% higher.

All three indexes are on track for a weekly gain — and that would mark their third straight positive week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose more than 2% as of Thursday’s close, while the Dow is on track for a 1.9% gain.

Positive figures for the October consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) supported stocks this week. The CPI was unchanged from the previous month, while wholesale prices fell 0.5%, the biggest monthly decline since April 2020.

The results raised investors’ hopes that the worst of inflation – as well as the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance on interest rate policy – may be over.

The question is whether traders can maintain that optimism for the rest of the month. In November, the S&P 500 rose 7.5%, while the Dow gained 5.7%. The Nasdaq gained 9.8%.

Later today, investors will pay attention to data on housing starts and building permits for October.

Asian stocks

Hong Kong stocks led declines in Asia-Pacific on Friday, as Alibaba shares plunged in early trade, while most markets cooled after a midweek rally on hopes of easing U.S. inflation.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.12% to 17,454.19. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said it would not spin off its entire cloud business due to US chip export restrictions.

Investors also looked to high-level discussions between the US and China.

Mainland China’s CSI 300 index fell 0.12% to close at 3,568.07 points, the only major market in Asia to record a decline (about 0.6%) since the start of the week.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.48% to 33,585.2 points.