Stock Futures Lower Amid Rising Bond Yields

Stocks futures are lower Wednesday, as traders continue to digest the latest round of quarterly reports and the global inflation outlook. At last check, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures are both down triple digits, while futures on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) sit in the red as well.

Treasury yields are higher following a larger-than-expected rise in U.K. inflation, and the 2-year Treasury yield came close to 4.3% as investors bet on another stateside interest rate hike at the Federal Reserve's May 3 meeting. Elsewhere, mortgage demand in the U.S. rose 10% amid higher interest rates.

• How recent market moves could impact options, per Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White.
• Tech stock could topple technical ceiling.
• Plus, airline's profit forecasts; potential layoffs at Meta Platforms; and AT&T's dips before earnings.

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1 million call contracts and 672,184 put contracts exchanged on Tuesday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.64 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.78.
2. United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL) is down 1.3% premarket, despite the major airliner yesterday forecasting second-quarter and full-year profits that were above expectations. missing first-quarter revenue estimates. Coming into today, UAL was up 14.2% year-to-date.
3. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is down 1.8% before the bell, after a person familiar with the company's plans relayed that the company is expected to announce another round of layoffs -- its first since November. The Facebook parent will also take to the earnings confessional after next Wednesday's close. Year-to-date, Meta Platforms stock is up 81%.
4. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is fractionally lower in electronic trading, and thinning its already marginal 1.9% year-over-year lead, as Wall Street looks ahead to the telecommunication giant's earnings, due out before the open tomorrow. Specifically, traders are looking at AT&T's subscriber growth.    
5. Today brings the Federal Reserve's Beige Book. New York Fed President John C. Williams is also set to deliver remarks.

European Stocks Lower After CPI Reading

Asian markets finished mostly lower on Wednesday, though the South Korean Kospi bucked the broad market trend with a 0.2% gain. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng led the losses with a 1.4% drop, as tech and real estate stocks weighed on the index, while Japan’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.2% and 0.7%, respectively. There’s cautious optimism around the region, after J.P. Morgan Securities, Citi, and UBS all raised their full-year forecasts for China’s economy in the wake of yesterday’s gross domestic product (GDP) data.

Markets are lower in Europe at last glance as well. The consumer price index (CPI) in the U.K. came in at 10.1% in March, down from the previous month’s 10.4% but up from the 9.8% reading anticipated by analysts. London’s FTSE 100 and the German DAX are both down 0.2%, while the French CAC 40 inches marginally lower.