Stock futures rose Thursday as Wall Street looked to build on a modest rebound from Wednesday. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 62 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures were 0.1% higher, while Nasdaq 100 futures hovered near the flatline. Stocks rallied on Wednesday but did not erase all of the losses from Tuesday’s sell-off, which came on the heels of a hotter-than-expected inflation report. The S&P 500 recaptured the 5,000 level, closing slightly above it. Investors are weighing whether the Federal Reserve can bring down inflation without derailing an economy that keeps surprising to the upside. “Resilient growth is buoying inflation, which should also put upward pressure on rates. However, strong economic activity is also supporting earnings. And looking forward, the market is trading more on economic growth and earnings projections than interest rates and inflation,” said Dylan Kremer, chief investment officer at Certuity. Investors received another update about the state of the U.S. economy on Thursday, with January retail sales plunging 0.8%, much more than the 0.3% decline economists polled by Dow Jones had expected. This raised some concern about the strength of the U.S. consumer under the weight of sticky inflation and high interest rates, and sent Treasury yields down. Earnings season continues to paint a muddled picture of corporate America. Cisco shares were down 4% in premarket trading after the tech company announced layoffs and weak forward sales projections. Tripadvisor jumped 5% after beating estimates on the top and bottom lines. U.S. Treasury yields fell Thursday after weaker-than-expected retail sales data, coming on the heels of a hotter inflation print this week, raised some concern about the strength of the consumer. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was more than 6 basis points lower at 4.203%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last down by more than 5 basis points at 4.519%. Asia-Pacific markets rebounded after mostly falling on Wednesday, while Japan entered a technical recession as its GDP contracted for a second straight quarter. Japan’s Nikkei 225 saw a late rally, rising 1.21% to close at 38,157.94 — the first time the index closed above the 38,000 mark since 1990. The broad-based Topix climbed 0.28% to end at 2,591.85. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.77%, snapping a three-day losing streak and ending at 7,605.7. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.08% and was the only major benchmark in negative territory, while the small-cap Kosdaq was 0.6% higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.56% higher, extending gains from Wednesday, while mainland Chinese markets were closed for the week. Crude oil futures fell Thursday on a weak global demand growth forecast for 2024. The West Texas Intermediate contract for March lost 50 cents, or 0.65%, to $76.14 a barrel, while the Brent contract for April traded at $81.12 a barrel, down 48 cents, or 0.59%. Futures settled more than 1% lower Wednesday after U.S. commercial crude stockpiles surged. WTI and global benchmark Brent are largely flat over the past week. Gold struggled near a two-month low on Thursday, as investors assessed comments from two U.S. Federal Reserve officials on unexpectedly high January inflation that has tempered hopes for swift and deeper interest rate cuts this year. Spot gold was flat at $1,991.70 per ounce (Oz), as of 0441 GMT, after hitting its lowest since Dec. 13 on Wednesday. U.S. gold futures were flat at $2,003.40/Oz.