-- U.S. stock index futures rose slightly in evening deals on Thursday, extending gains from a positive session on Wall Street as more signs of a cooling labor market brought down Treasury yields.

Investors largely maintained bets that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates by September, although key inflation data next week is widely expected to factor into this outlook.

rose 0.1% to 5,244.50 points, while rose 0.1% to 18,235.75 points by 19:45 ET (23:45 GMT). rose 0.1% to 39,592.0 points.

Wall St rises, yields drop amid more signs of cooling labor market

Wall Street indexes rose on Thursday, with the Dow clocking a seventh straight day of gains as a bigger-than-expected increase in weekly furthered expectations of a cooling labor market. 

The data, which came nearly a week after a substantially softer-than-expected reading, sparked a drop in Treasury yields, with the falling 0.8% on Thursday. 

Wall Street capitalized on the drop in yields, with the rising 0.5% to finish at 5,214.08 points on Thursday. The rose 0.3% to 15,346.27 points, while the jumped 0.9% to 39,387.76 points. 

Expectations of rate cuts were a key driver of Wall Street in recent sessions, especially amid growing signs that the U.S. economy may be cooling. But sticky inflation remained a point of concern.

CPI data on tap next week 

This trend put focus squarely on a inflation reading for April, due next week. The reading is expected to moderate after overheated prints for the past three months, but is still likely to remain above the Fed’s 2% target.

A string of Fed officials warned this week that sticky inflation will keep interest rates high for longer, although they also dismissed the possibility of more rate hikes. 

The showed traders pricing in a nearly 50% chance the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in September. 

Akami, Unity sink on weak earnings

Among major aftermarket movers, cloud services firm (NASDAQ:) fell 10.6% after posting disappointing guidance for the current quarter and for 2024.

Videogame software developer (NYSE:) fell nearly 5% after its quarterly earnings per share missed estimates.