Peter Nurse   

According to Investing.com, U.S. stocks opened marginally higher Thursday despite the disappointing update by entertainment giant. Disney

At 7:05 AM ET (1305 GMT), the contract had risen 60 points or 0.2%. It traded up 18 points, which is 0.4% higher, and climbed 107, or 0.7%.

Wednesday saw the three main indices fall after consumer prices in the United States rose by the largest amount for 31 years. There are fears that Federal Reserve may be forced to increase interest rates sooner than anticipated. 

Blue chip dropped 240 points or 0.7% while broad-based fell 0.8%. Tech-heavy lost the most with a 1.7% drop.

The driving force behind Wednesday’s losses was the U.S.  rising 6.2% in the 12 months through October, the highest annual rate of inflation since November 1990. This month’s price rise was more than anticipated and broad-based.

With the bonds market closed on Veterans Day, activity may be slow Thursday.

After the media and entertainment conglomerate posted the lowest increase in Disney+ subscribers since its streaming video service, the focus of investors will likely be on Walt Disney (NYSE :). The company’s theme parks division failed to meet projections despite being reopened following the pandemic. 

Rivian Automobile (NASDAQ) also seems likely to remain in the spotlight. It was the day after the aspiring electric-car maker posted gains of over 29%, just after having raised $12 billion during its IPO. This was the largest IPO in America since 2006. Alibaba (NYSE:) 2014 and largest U.S.-based company after Facebook (NASDAQ:).

Tesla (NASDAQ:), will continue to be in the limelight after SEC filings indicated that Elon Musk had sold about 4.5 million shares within three days. That’s around one third of what he said was probable on Sunday.

Crude prices weakened Thursday, continuing the previous session’s losses on concerns the sharp rise in U.S. inflation, boosted by high energy costs, will prompt the Biden administration to release more strategic stockpiles.

According to President Joe Biden, he requested that the National Economic Council work towards reducing energy prices. 

In its next monthly report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to update its global supply and demand forecasts.  

Futures were trading 0.9% lower at $80.58 per barrel by 7:05 am ET. They had dropped 3.3% Wednesday and traded 0.8% lower for $82.00 on Wednesday. The previous session saw futures fall 2.5%.

Also, the price of gold rose 0.9% at $1,865.10/oz while it traded slightly lower at 1.1474.