(Reuters) – U.S. stocks index futures rose Wednesday ahead of monthly inflation figures, which are likely to give investors clues as to how aggressively Federal Reserve might raise interest rates.

At 8:30 AM, the Labor Department report is due. ET will likely show that the consumer price rose at a slower rate in April than in March, with a cooling of 0.2% to April (from 1.2% in March).

The markets have moved ahead of the data this week, which will be carefully scrutinized for indications that inflation might be peaking after the Federal Reserve raised its 50-basis point rates by increasing hawkishness.

Recent comments from Fed officials have backed a series of half-percentage-point rate increases, although traders see a 73% chance that the central bank will hike by 75 basis points at the June meeting.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya (senior analyst, Swissquote Bank) stated that a soft reading of inflation will be a relief because the Federal Reserve has made progress in taming inflation and the Fed doesn’t have to become more aggressive to return inflation to its 2% target.

If inflation doesn’t pull lower than expected, and worse, if it prints higher than the previous month, then we will see another major selloff of all assets.”

Technology-heavy Nasdaq finished higher Tuesday, though it is close to an 18 month low that was reached earlier in the week due to megacap growth stock losses.

At 06.59 a.m. ET was up 267 points (or 0.83%) and 44 points (or 1.1%), respectively. ET also rose 178.5 points or 1.45%.

U.S. Treasury yields have extended their fall from the recent highs and are now below 3% for 10-year notes. This is a support to equity markets. [US/]

Stocks with high growth potential such as Tesla Inc (NASDAQ) Inc, Amazon.com.com (NASDAQ) Microsoft Corp Premarket trading saw a gain of between 1.6% to 2% for Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms and Apple Inc (NASDAQ)

In the midst of turmoil on global markets, which have lowered investor appetites for risk assets and led to Coinbase’s first-quarter revenues not exceeding estimates, Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ::) fell 13.9%