07:44 AM EDT, 09/26/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The benchmark US stock measures were mostly pointing lower before the open Friday as investors await a key inflation report and assess President Donald Trump's latest wave of tariffs on pharmaceuticals, furniture and heavy trucks.

The S&P 500 edged down less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq was off 0.2% in premarket activity, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.1%. The indexes finished Thursday in the red for a third trading session in a row.

The personal income and outlays report for August is scheduled for an 8:30 am ET release. The report includes the personal consumption expenditure core price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation metric.

Treasury yields were mixed in premarket action, with the two-year rate retreating 0.6 basis points to 3.66%, while the 10-year rate gained 0.2 basis points to 4.18%.

Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid said Thursday that inflation in the US continues to be "too high while the labor market, though cooling, still remains largely in balance." Earlier this week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said policymakers face a "challenging situation," with near-term risks to inflation tilted to the upside and those to employment leaning downside.

The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.8% in the second quarter, faster than a 3.3% pace projected previously, according to a final estimate by the Bureau of Economic Analysis released Thursday.

In social media posts on Thursday, Trump announced that the US will be imposing tariffs of 25% on all heavy trucks, 50% on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and associated products, as well as 100% duties on branded or patented pharmaceutical products. Trump said companies building manufacturing plants in the country will be exempt from the pharma tariffs. The latest tariffs are scheduled to come into effect at the beginning of October.

The Trump administration is considering a plan that would require chipmakers to produce in the US as many semiconductors as their customers import, or face tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Trump also signed an executive order Thursday advancing plans for American investors to acquire TikTok's US operations from China's ByteDance.

Oracle (ORCL) will act as TikTok's security provider and independently monitor and assure the safety of all operations in the US, according to a statement from the White House. The stock was down 0.8% in premarket activity. Costco Wholesale ( COST ) declined 0.6% as the warehouse chain's fiscal fourth-quarter comparable sales missed market estimates.

Friday's economic calendar also has the final University of Michigan consumer sentiment report for September at 10 am, followed by the weekly Baker Hughes oil-and-gas rig count at 1 pm.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin is slated to speak at 7:30 am and later at 9:00 am. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman's latest remarks are due at 1 pm.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil slipped 0.2% to $64.87 a barrel before the opening bell. Gold inched 0.1% higher to $3,776 per troy ounce, while bitcoin decreased 0.6% to $108,981.