(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures dipped on Tuesday as Treasury yields hit new highs on expectations of aggressive interest rate hikes, while investors awaited more earnings reports to assess the impact of soaring inflation and the Ukraine war.
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard on Monday repeated his case for increasing the rates to 3.5% by the end of the year to slow a 40-year-high inflation. He also said he did not rule out a 75 basis points rate hike.
Rate-sensitive megacap names Microsoft Corp and Apple slipped about 0.2% in premarket trading as the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 3% for the first time since early 2019. [US/]
After recovering in March from a selloff driven by the Ukraine war, U.S. stocks have again come under pressure this month as the prospect of higher U.S. rates weigh on growth and technology stocks and quarterly results remain mixed.
Johnson & Johnson fell 2.6% after it suspended the sales forecast for its COVID-19 vaccine due to global supply surplus and demand uncertainty.
Only 38 companies in the S&P 500 index have reported first-quarter earnings so far, with 78.9% of them topping profit estimates, as per Refintiv data. Typically, 66% beat estimates.
At 06:58 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 18 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 4.75 points, or 0.11%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 22.25 points, or 0.16%.
The main indexes ended lower in thin trading on Monday as investors returned from Easter holidays to weigh bank earnings, with Bank of America Corp posting a better-than-expected profit.
Twitter Inc slipped 0.5% despite overnight reports that more private equity firms have expressed interest in participating in a deal for the micro-blogging site.
Netflix Inc, set to report after the closing bell, was down 0.6%. The streaming giant is expected to report its slowest quarterly revenue growth in nearly eight years, with analysts warning it could lose about a million subscribers due to its exit from Russia.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
