By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures retreated on Friday as lofty tech stocks bled further amid elevated U.S. bond yields and prospects of a spike in inflation.
Shares of Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc, Facebook Inc and Netflix Inc were down between 0.6% and 0.9% before the bell.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were knocked off their all-time highs last week after a sharp rise in U.S. Treasury yields triggered profit taking in some of the mega-cap technology stocks.
“Higher yields and steeper curves tend to be good for financials but less so for tech,” said Karen Ward, chief market strategist EMEA at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
“These sectoral shifts will also likely dictate other rotations such as from growth towards value.”
The Dow is poised for its best month since November 2020 as investors bought into cyclical companies set to benefit from an economic reopening, while the Nasdaq remains on track to wipe out nearly all of its gains for the month.
At 06:50 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 183 points, or 0.58%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 16.75 points, or 0.44%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 96.5 points, or 0.75%.
Data on U.S. personal consumption, which includes one of the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation measures, is expected to show core inflation dipped to 1.4% in January, which could help calm market worries.
Stimulus will be back in focus as the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives aims to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill on Friday in what would be the first major legislative victory of his presidency.
GameStop Corp jumped 10% premarket as retail investors pushed up the stock in a renewed rally that could see it clock its second best week.
Salesforce.com Inc slipped about 3% as the online software company forecast full-year profit below market expectations.
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
