Stock futures rose marginally Thursday after a lighter-than-expected inflation reading propelled the major averages to record highs. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 20 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures traded just above the flatline, while Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.2%. The three major averages closed at records on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 breaking above 5,300 for the first time. That performance was helped by the April reading of the consumer price index, a broad measure of how much goods and services cost at the cash register, which increased 0.3% from the prior month. That was slightly below the Dow Jones estimate of 0.4%. Consumer prices still grew 3.4% from a year ago. “The market is recognizing that the inflation dynamics look favorable,” Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management, told CNBC. “Combine that with some of the takeaways from the earnings season, which were pretty healthy earnings and favorable outlooks overall, the market was just coiled to look to interpret news as good news.” ″[That] is the hallmark of a bull market,” he added, “to take take something that could be two-sided and call it good.” On Thursday, investors have a batch of economic data to look forward to, including the widely watched weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. Eastern and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve manufacturing index. Investors are also looking forward to Walmart earnings, due before the bell, along with Under Armour U.S. Treasury yields were little changed Thursday as investors weighed the latest inflation data and considered the implications it may have for Federal Reserve monetary policy. At 6:31 a.m. ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was down by 2 basis point at 4.336%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last at 4.74% after rising by less than 1 basis point. Asia-Pacific markets rose Thursday after Wall Street benchmarks closed at record highs overnight on soft inflation data, while investors assessed Japan GDP data. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.39% to end at 38,920.26, while the broader Topix closed 0.24% higher at 2,737.54. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index reopened after a holiday, rising1.43%. Mainland China’s CSI 300 index gained 0.39% to end at 3,640.35. The Taiwan Weighted Index hit a fresh record closing high, up 0.74% at 21,304.26. South Korea’s markets also resumed trading after a holiday, with the Kospi rising 0.75% and the smaller-cap Kosdaq adding 0.8%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index gained 1.65% to close at 7,881.30. Oil prices extended gains from the previous session on Thursday on signs of stronger demand in the U.S. where data showed slower inflation than markets expected, strengthening the argument for an interest rate cut which could result in even stronger demand. Brent futures rose 42 cents, or 0.5%, to $83.17 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 43 cents, or 0.6%, to $79.06 at 0032 GMT. Gold prices hovered near a one-month high on Thursday as signs of inflation stabilizing in the U.S. increased the likelihood of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve as early as September. Spot gold was little changed at $2,383.86 per ounce as of 0927 GMT, after hitting its highest since April 19 earlier in the session. Bullion rose over 1% on Wednesday. On the other hand, U.S. gold futures slipped 0.3% to $2,388.40.