Wall Street Today | Disney eases streaming fears with strong subscriber growth

Asian stocks are set to rise Thursday in the tailwind of the best day for U.S. shares this month. The Treasury yield curve flattened before inflation data that could shape views on Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes.

Last week crude stockpiles in one of the biggest oil consumers in the world plunged to the lowest since 2018. At the same time, the four-week average for total oil product supplied, a proxy for demand, surged to nearly 22 million barrels a day, the highest on record.

The tightness in U.S. markets has vaulted oil and retail fuel prices to levels not seen since 2014. A surge toward $100 a barrel will stoke further worries about inflation, that is already at multi-year highs in many countries.

Billions of dollars earmarked for takeovers by blank-check companies have piled up unused as the hot-then-not mania fades for speculative stocks.

Almost 600 special-purpose acquisition companies holding nearly $160 billion in trust are searching for something to buy, data compiled by Boardroom Alpha show. With about 88 active SPACs set to expire this year and another 318 facing deadlines in next year's first half, there's a "possibility of a logjam of deal closures," Goldman Sachs analyst David Kostin wrote in a note.

Disney's parks, experiences and consumer products division saw revenues reach $7.2 billion during the quarter, double the $3.6 billion it generated in the prior-year quarter. Shares rose about 8% after hours.

The consumer price index for January is expected to show headline inflation at the highest pace since 1982, when it is reported Thursday morning. CPI is expected to rise by 0.4% or 7.2% year-over-year.

"I think if this number comes out higher than expected and it pushes the year-over-year number higher than 7.2% that argues further for the Fed to be aggressive in short order," said one economist.

A director of market strategy at Salesforce predicted in a December blog post that 2022 would be a big year for NFTs.

Current and former employees started firing off angry comments in the chat function about this week's announced job cuts and accusations of mismanagement.

Coffee futures reached the highest in ten years in New York amid mounting concerns over tight supplies.

Arabica prices have more than doubled over the past year following dry weather in Brazil, supply chain turmoil and freight costs. To tackle short supply, roasters have tapped inventories and sent stockpiles monitored by the ICE Futures U.S. exchange to the lowest in 22 years.