Bowman Seen as Front-Runner as Fed's Top Banking Cop; February CPI Report in Focus

Global Markets Rise Ahead of U.S. Inflation Data

U.S. stock futures started the day up a touch, with signs of some stabilization across global equities indexes following further falls on Wall Street on Tuesday.

EU Hits Back as U.S. Steel and Aluminum Tariffs Take Effect

The 25% global levy was imposed by the Trump administration after the U.S. and Canada backed away from additional measures. The European Union responded with retaliatory tariffs.

Is Trump Taking a 'Liquidationist' Approach to the Economy?

The administration's view that damaging the economy now could help it later comes with little upside for investors.

Venture Investors Hoped for an IPO Recovery in 2025. Now It's On Hold.

Market volatility makes listing a 'monumental challenge.' Meanwhile, limited partners are under pressure as distributions dry up.

ECB Facing 'Exceptionally High' Levels of Uncertainty, Lagarde Says

A rise in European defense spending in response to doubts about the reliability of the U.S. as an ally could push inflation higher, but tariffs might have the opposite effect, the ECB president said.

Major Japanese Firms Promise Big Pay Raises in Bright Sign for Economy

Large companies including auto giant Toyota Motor concluded annual spring wage talks, with many saying they will fully meet unions' salary demands.

Eurozone Economy Still Burdened by High Rates, ECB's Centeno Warns

Rate setter Mario Centeno said the European Central Bank should continue to cut interest rates or risk seeing inflation settle beneath its target.

Trump's Economic Messaging Is Spooking Some of His Own Advisers

The president's team has received a flood of calls from business executives concerned about the mixed messaging on tariffs.

BOJ Reiterates That Bond Yields Should Be Determined in Market

Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda reiterated that bond yields should be determined freely in the market, suggesting that the central bank doesn't have any immediate plans to intervene to stop yield rises.

Goldman Sachs Cuts Forecast for U.S. Economy. Trump's Tariffs Are to Blame.

Chief Economist Jan Hatzius also anticipates core PCE inflation may reaccelerate to 3% later this year.

US benchmark equity indexes were tracking in the green in Wednesday's premarket activity as traders await a key inflation report.

Standard & Poor's 500 increased 0.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% while the Nasdaq added 0.8% before the opening bell. The majority of Asian exchanges were trending lower, while European bourses were pointing higher midday on the continent.

The consumer price index report for February is scheduled for an 8:30 am ET release. Government data are expected to show that consumer inflation rose 0.3% sequentially last month in the US, according to a Bloomberg-compiled consensus.

Also on Wednesday's economic calendar, the weekly mortgage applications bulletin posts at 7 am, followed by the weekly EIA petroleum inventories report at 10:30 am.

Shares of Intel advanced 7.9% pre-bell following media reports that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing has approached major semiconductor companies, including Nvidia , Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom , to form a joint venture that would operate the chipmaker's factories. Casey's General Stores' stock inclined 2.5% as the convenience store operator recorded fiscal third-quarter results above market estimates.

ABM Industries , VNET Group , ZIM Integrated Shipping Services and Sprinklr report their latest financial results before the bell, among others. Adobe , Crown Castle , UiPath , SentinelOne and American Eagle Outfitters release earnings after the markets close.

In premarket action, bitcoin traded down 0.8% at $82,483, West Texas Intermediate crude oil moved up 1% to $66.91 a barrel, yields on 10-year Treasuries retreated 0.4 basis points to 4.28% and gold inched lower to $2,920 an ounce.

By Chelsey Dulaney

Consumer inflation likely slowed a little in February, after January's surprising hot reading.

The report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, will be the first monthly inflation reading that falls fully under the new Trump administration, though it won't capture the impact of the latest tariffs.

Inflation concerns have intensified, as President Trump's import levies risk fueling price pressures while also weighing on growth, a mix known as stagflation. Resurgent inflation would make it harder for the Federal Reserve to make further cuts to interest rates, even if the economy is slowing.

Early Wednesday, the Trump administration's 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports took effect. The European Union announced retaliatory tariffs that will start April and target a range of U.S. products including bourbon whiskey, boats and motorcycles.

In recent trading:

• Stock futures rose. This follows a volatile session Tuesday, after Trump moved to ratchet up tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel, then reversed course. All three major indexes fell yesterday, notching their worst two-day drop since August.
• Wall Street's fear gauge edged down. The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, fell about 3% to 26.
• Treasury yields were little changed early Wednesday. The benchmark 10-year yield settled above 4.28% Tuesday.
• European stocks mostly rose, despite the tariff escalation. Benchmarks rose 1% or more in France, Germany and Italy.
• The U.S. dollar strengthened slightly, after the WSJ Dollar Index settled Tuesday at the lowest level since November. The euro was little changed, at $1.09.

This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).

The cost of insuring euro credit against default using credit default swaps declines on improved sentiment after Ukraine said it was ready to accept a ceasefire deal brokered by the U.S. "The ceasefire deal accepted by Ukraine has a positive impact," CMC Markets' Jochen Stanzl says in a note. Russia has yet to agree to the deal, however. Focus is also on U.S. inflation data due to be released at 1230 GMT, where a weaker reading could add to expectations for several U.S. interest-rate cuts this year and boost risk appetite. The iTraxx Europe Crossover index, which tracks euro junk bond credit default swaps, falls 5 basis points to 304 basis points, S&P Global Market Intelligence data show. (miriam.mukuru@wsj.com)

By Kimberley Kao

India's consumer-price growth continued easing for a fourth straight month, likely stoking expectations that more interest-rate cuts are on the horizon.

The consumer-price index rose 3.61% on the year in February, government figures showed Wednesday. That is down from the revised figure of 4.26% in January and lower than the 3.8% forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Economists had mostly expected broad-based declines in food and vegetable prices to drag inflation lower.

Inflation coming sustainably closer to the 4% level deemed optimal by the Reserve Bank of India would justify further interest-rate cuts, economists say, especially as growth slows. Unlike its peers in most of the world's other large economies, which have been lowering rates since last year, the RBI only started easing in January under new governor Sanjay Malhotra.

Dovish policy minutes, a downshift in annual growth this year and a sub-4% inflation print would lay the groundwork for 50 basis points of further cuts this year, DBS senior economist Radhika Rao said in a note, with the next move likely in April.

However, concerns persist about potential price shocks in an increasingly uncertain external environment dominated by tariff turbulence.

The RBI alluded to those risks in its February meeting, and has said it will remain watchful of headwinds from volatility in global financial markets, geopolitical tensions and protectionist trade policies.

Still, the central bank expects inflation to stay moderate and for growth to improve, with inflation likely to ease to 4.8% in the current financial year from 5.4% the year before.

Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com

A survey of business conditions in the first quarter showed Japan's corporations, especially small enterprises, described declining conditions, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) reported Wednesday.

The business conditions survey index for all large companies, those with more than 1 billion yen of capital, logged at 2 in the first quarter, down from 5.7 in the fourth quarter, reported the MoF.

Large manufacturers were decidedly less optimistic, with the index dropping to negative 2.4 in the first quarter from a positive 6.3 in the previous quarter.

The index for large non-manufacturers in the first quarter dropped to 4.1 from 5.4 in the fourth quarter.

For all corporations with between 100 million and 1 billion yen in capital, or medium-sized companies, the business conditions index fell to 0.7 in the first quarter, from 3.8 in the fourth quarter.

For companies with between 10 million and 100 million yen in capital, the business condition index fell to negative 12.7 in the first quarter, from negative 4.7 in the previous quarter, reported the MoF.

For domestic economic conditions, the survey index for large corporations struck 3.1 in the first quarter, down from 4.2 in the fourth quarter.

For medium-sized companies, the domestic economic conditions survey index dropped to negative 2.3 from positive 1.4, while for smaller companies, the index dropped from negative 11.7 to negative 17.7, reported the MoF.

Japan enterprises also said they expected sales and profits in fiscal 2025, started April 1, 2024, to be less robust than in fiscal 2024.