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Stock futures were little changed Thursday morning as Wall Street awaited a second major inflation report.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7 points, or about 0.02%, while S&P 500 futures also lost 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.04%.

Stocks went into sell-off mode on Wednesday as investors assessed a high reading of inflation in March, fueling fears that the Federal Reserve could make fewer rate cuts than expected. Minutes from last month's Fed meeting also showed some officials remain concerned about inflation's path toward the central bank's 2 percent target.

The surprise trend – which saw consumer prices rise 0.4% in March and 3.5% year-on-year – prompted Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius to adjust the firm's call for two rate cuts from three in 2024. He now expects the first interest rate cut in July.

“I'm optimistic that we'll rebalance the labor market and bring inflation down over time – to me that hasn't changed,” he told CNBC's “Closing Bell” on Wednesday. “What has changed, however, is the timing of the Fed's adjustment, as this will depend much more on the monthly inflation news, which has clearly been disappointing.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average led losses on Wednesday, falling 1.09%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.95%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.84%. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors ended the session in negative territory, with real estate hit hardest by selling pressure, down more than 4%. The interest rate on the 10-year Treasury note topped 4.5%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasury note rose to nearly 5%.

The market's next key inflation test comes on Thursday with the March producer price index. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones said wholesale prices rose 0.3% in March and excluding food and energy rose 0.2%. Separately, weekly unemployment claims are also due before the bell.

The early stages of earnings season continue on Thursday, with results from CarMax, Fastenal and Constellation Brands before the bell. The unofficial start of the reporting period begins with earnings from major banks JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup on Friday.

The PBOC surprises by setting the yuan mid-market rate as a stronger dollar puts pressure on the currency

The People's Bank of China set the median fixing rate for the yuan at 7.0968 per U.S. dollar, 1,654 basis points higher than a Reuters estimate.

This is the largest discrepancy since Reuters began estimating in 2018.

At 1:10 p.m. Shanghai time, the offshore yuan was trading at 7.2530 after China reported a lower-than-expected inflation rate for March, highlighting continued weakness in the world's second-largest economy.

—Lim Hui Jie

Foxconn considers rotating chief executives to develop talent: Reuters

Apple supplier Foxconn is considering introducing a rotating CEO system to nurture future talent, according to a Reuters report.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters said: “The plan was in response to repeated calls from investors to strengthen corporate governance by separating the role of chief executive from that of chairman.”

Young Liu has been both chairman and CEO of the 50-year-old Taiwanese company since 2019. Liu took over from founder Terry Gou, who held both roles until his retirement in 2019

— Reuters

China's inflation falls short of estimates as price growth slows to 0.1% in March

China's consumer price index rose just 0.1% in March from a year earlier, compared with a 0.7% rise in February and less than the 0.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Month-on-month, the country's CPI fell 1%, well below the 0.5% decline expected by Reuters.

Separately, China's producer price index fell 2.8% in March compared to the same period last year, in line with expectations.

—Lim Hui Jie

Real estate and utilities suffered Wednesday from the jump in Treasury yields

Two interest rate-sensitive sectors of the broader market took a hit on Wednesday as stocks sold off and the 10-year Treasury yield rose above 4.5%.

Real estate fell 4.1%, making it the biggest loser among the 11 sectors of the S&P 500. Although all underlying stocks within the sector were negative, SBA Communications, Extra Space Storage and Boston Properties all fell more than 6% .

Utilities stocks also slumped, falling 1.7%. AES Corp, Pinnacle West Capital and CenterPoint Energy dragged the sector lower; All three stocks fell more than 3%.

Real estate and utilities can struggle in a high interest rate environment. That's because higher interest rates increase borrowing costs for both real estate investment trusts and utilities.

When interest rates are high, these sectors also become less attractive to income investors, who may be more attracted to the yields of safer government bonds rather than the dividends from real estate and utility stocks.

–Darla Mercado

Regional banks were rocked by Wednesday's market reaction to March inflation

It is not immediately apparent that regional banks fell as sharply as they did on Wednesday in response to faster inflation in March and the subsequent repricing of Treasury yields. After all, the S&P 500 Financial Index only fell 1.5%, compared to a 1% decline for the S&P 500.

But the S&P 500 Financials includes all sorts of companies, from the country's largest banks like JPMorgan and Bank of America to credit card networks Visa and Mastercard.

Go closer to the regional banks to find the S&P 1500 Regional Bank Index, which is made up of all the banks in the S&P 500, the S&P Midcap 400 and the S&P Smallcap 600, and see that it was up 4.5% on Wednesday has fallen. Examples of the carnage abound: New York Community Bancorp in Long Island lost 8.1%, Brookline Bancorp in Boston lost 5.9% and Western Alliance Bancorp in Phoenix lost 5.8%. West Virginia-based MVB Financial fell 5.1% and New Jersey-based BCB Bancorp fell 4.5%.

Analysts at Bank of America said Monday that investors would scour banks' first-quarter earnings reports for “potential vulnerabilities in a longer-term higher interest rate environment (commercial real estate, total loans, cost of deposits) while looking for a bottom in net interest income,” NII; on average around 80% of sales).

– Scott Schnipper

Vertex Pharmaceuticals acquires Alpine Immune Sciences

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals fell 1% in extended trading after the biotechnology company said it will acquire Alpine Immune Sciences for $4.9 billion in cash, or about $65 per share.

Shares of Alpine rose more than 36% in after-hours trading. The biopharmaceutical company develops protein-based immunotherapies to treat certain autoimmune diseases.

—Samantha Subin

Stock futures open lower on Wednesday evening

U.S. stock futures were lower on Wednesday evening.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.2%, while Dow futures fell 79 points, or 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.16%.

–Darla Mercado