Stock futures turn higher following inflation reading

The Labor Department's report that consumer prices advanced 0.2 percent last month after rising 0.3 percent in the previous month appeared to put off Wall Street's worries of a big spike in prices because of a recent surge in energy costs. The decline in prices comes despite the largest jump in food prices in 18 years.

Wall Street has been concerned that higher food and energy costs are cutting into consumers' ability to spend. Any pullback is an unnerving prospect for investors because consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

Stock futures, which had been moderately lower ahead of the report, turned higher.

Dow Jones industrial average rose 48, or 0.37 percent, to 12,874.

Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 4.40, or 0.31 percent, to 1,409.10, and the Nasdaq 100 futures rose 6.25, or 0.31 percent, to 2,012.25.

Light, sweet crude oil fell 38 cents to $125.42 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Bond prices slipped. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.92 percent from 3.91 percent late Tuesday.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.18 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.43 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.53 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.74 percent.