U.S. equity futures were little changed Monday after key stock benchmarks reached record highs and investors awaited inflation data slated for release later this week. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 5 points, or 0.02%, while S&P 500 futures added 0.06%. Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.14%. Amazon is joining the 30-stock Dow on Monday, replacing Walgreens Boots Alliance. The Dow’s holdings are weighted according to stock price, not market cap. The addition of the e-commerce giant will increase the index’s exposure to tech and consumer retail. Stocks are coming into the final week of February on a high note after the major indexes achieved key milestones and registered winning weeks with help from Nvidia’s blockbuster earnings. The blue-chip Dow closed at an all-time high, the S&P at one point in the session broke above 5,100 for the first time, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite touched a 52-week high in Friday’s session. Investors are now watching whether the AI momentum can last as economic and inflation risks linger. With that in mind, they’re also looking ahead to the monthly personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s favored inflation gauge due out Thursday. “Nvidia has been the gift that keeps on giving with blockbuster earnings reports driving semis, tech, and the broader market higher this past week. With the market now up over 20% since its Oct 2023 low, we would expect the market to take a breather at some point,” Stephanie Lang, chief investment officer at Homrich Berg, told CNBC. “A hotter than expected PCE report this week could be a data point that could dampen the market enthusiasm.” “So far stocks have shrugged off the hawkish tone of the Fed as the AI halo has taken center stage, but the market is banking on the Fed’s orchestration of a soft landing and the longer the Fed waits the more risk there is to that happy ending,” she added. “Still the Fed is well aware that they want to avoid a repeat of a stop-and-go tightening of interest rates in the 1970s when they failed to control inflation so they remain patient to make sure they are confident their job is done.” There’s a raft of economic releases on deck, including January durable orders data on Tuesday and January wholesale inventories on Wednesday. Elsewhere, corporate earnings are winding down but several high-interest names are reporting in the coming week, which could give investors greater insight into the state of tech and the consumer. U.S. Treasury yields declined on Monday as investors awaited key economic data set to be published this week which could provide hints about the outlook for interest rates and the state of the economy. At 7:05 a.m. ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was around 1 basis points lower to 4.248%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last unchanged at 4.69%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index hit a fresh high Monday as traders returned from a long weekend, while China markets snapped a nine-day winning streak. The Nikkei ended 0.4% higher at 39,233.71, comfortably above its previous closing record of 39,098.68. The index breached its 1989 all-time high of 38,915.87 on Thursday. The broader Topix rose 0.5% to 2,673.62. Contrastingly, a strong rally in China stocks stalled, with the CSI 300 index falling 1.04% to close at 3,453.36. South Korea’s financial regulatory body unveiled new measures to improve corporate governance on Monday, taking a leaf out of Japan’s playbook to help boost its undervalued markets and tackle the “Korea discount.” But the measures did little to boost its main index on the day. The Kospi ended 0.8% lower at 2,647.08, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.1% to 867.40. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index were last down 0.5%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 ended 0.1% higher at 7,652.80. Oil prices fell on Monday, extending losses on market views that higher than expected inflation could delay cuts to high interest rates that have been capping growth in global fuel demand. Brent crude futures fell 39 cents, or 0.5%, to $81.23 a barrel by 1001 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) were down 34 cents, or 0.4%, at $76.15. Gold slipped on Monday as markets pared back expectations of the Federal Reserve’s easing cycle and cautiously awaited a key inflation reading this week, which is likely to provide an updated view on the timing of interest rate cuts. Spot gold edged down 0.1% to $2,033.89 per ounce as of 1005 GMT, after rising to its highest since Feb. 7 on Friday. U.S. gold futures dropped 0.3% to $2,043.30 per ounce.