Stock futures flinched but maintained their modest upside after inflation data came in near Wall Street expectations.

August CPI rose 0.4%, slightly more than the 0.3% gain expected. The core rate, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, was up 0.1% vs the flat reading that Wall Street expected.

A tech-sector deal, a couple of analyst upgrades and generally positive corporate news this morning supported early futures gains.

With the previous session's mild gains, stock averages are back at new highs for the year, spurred by guardedly optimistic comments from Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and better-than-expected retail and manufacturing data.

Today's data lineup also includes industrial production at 9:15 a.m. ET and the NAHB housing market survey for September at 1 p.m.

Crude is trading just lower though above $70 a barrel. Gold is up $12 at $1,018 an ounce. The dollar index is plumbing a fresh one-year low around 76.20.

Among active movers:

Citigroup (C) is atop the volume leaderboard in this morning's pre-market trade, recovering some of the 9% drop posted in Tuesday's regular session following reports the company is in talks with the U.S. government about selling some of the government's nearly 8 billion share stake in the bank.

Adobe (ADBE) is off to a lower start in pre-market action, but its deal news is considered encouraging on Wall Street.

Adobe beat on Q3, set Q4 guidance that straddled Street estimates, and announced a deal to acquire Omniture (OMTR).

Omniture (OMTR) will be sold to ADBE for $21.50 per share or about $1.8 billion.

Citigroup (C) is atop the volume leaderboard in this morning's pre-market trade, recovering some of the 9% drop posted in Tuesday's regular session following reports the company is in talks with the U.S. government about selling some of the government's nearly 8 billion share stake in the bank.

Rambus (RMBS) late Tuesday raised its Q3 sales forecast, citing stronger chip demand, which led to higher royalty payments.

Oracle (ORCL) is due with its results after the bell.

Dow Industrial futures up 47 points.

-S&P 500 futures up 5 points.

-Nasdaq 100 futures up 4.5 points.

-Nasdaq-100 Pre-Market Indicator up 7.37 at 1706.9.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Nikkei up 0.5%

Hang Seng up 2.6%

FTSE-100 up 1.6%

PRE-MARKET SECTOR WATCH

(+) Large cap tech: flat to firmer

(+) Chip stocks: firmer

(+,-) Small cap stocks: mixed

(+) Drug stocks: mostly firmer

(+,-) Software stocks: mixed

(+) Internet stocks: firmer

(+) Financial stocks: firmer

(-) Auto stocks: lower

(-,+) Airline stocks: mixed

(+,-) Retail stocks: mixed

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) C (+2.9%) recovering portion of previous loss that followed reports gov't selling stake.

(+) OMTR (+25%) being sold to Adobe (ADBE) for $21.50 per share.

(+) KERX (+23%) AEZS (+0.8%) get orphan drug status for multiple myeloma treatment.

(+) ACAS (+12.8%) sold to Corning (GLW) for $400 mln cash.

(+) IVAN (+14%) announces technical breakthrough in upgrading process.

(+) FLEX (+10%) gets favorable mention on Jim Cramer program.

(+) RMBS (+3.7%) raised sales forecast.

(+) AMZN (+2.2%) gets upgrade.

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) ADBE (-5%) beats with results, guidance mixed, making OMTR acquisition.

(-) MSO (-4.4%) gets analyst downgrade.

(-) VZ (-1.9%) gets analyst downgrade.