By Ambar Warrick and Devik Jain
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Wednesday ahead of a slew of economic data releases, with investors nervous about inflation and prospects for faster interest rate hikes heading into the Thanksgiving holiday.
Data on weekly jobless claims, durable goods and a second estimate of third-quarter GDP are due at 8:30 am ET (1330 GMT).
Personal consumption data for October, a key metric watched by the Federal Reserve to gauge consumer spending strength, is due at 10:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT).
Among single stocks, Nordstrom Inc plunged 27.2% in premarket trading after the retailer said labor costs pinched its quarterly profit and warned of product shortages at its off-price stores heading into the holiday season.
Gap Inc slumped 19.7% as it lowered its full-year forecast, with the apparel retailer expecting an up to $650 million hit to revenue amid supply chain disruptions.
The two companies set a grim tone for the sector ahead of the Thanksgiving weekend, which kicks off the U.S. holiday season.
Most major Wall Street lenders also slipped after rallying this week on hopes of higher interest rates. Bank of America and JPMorgan & Chase led early losses with declines of about half a percent each.
The S&P 500 banks index surged 4.1% this week, tracking a jump in Treasury yields as Jerome Powell’s nomination for a second term as Federal Reserve Chair boosted expectations of early monetary policy tightening. [US/]
Rising interest rates saw investors pull out of technology stocks, as they discount future earnings from the sector. The Nasdaq index has slipped 1.8% so far this week.
Tech majors including Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp slipped about 0.5% each.
Focus is also on minutes of the Fed’s Nov. 2-3 meeting, due later in the day, for clues on the pace at which the central bank intends to taper COVID-era stimulus measures. Fed officials had agreed at the meeting to begin scaling back monthly asset purchases.
Low trading volumes this week ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and a shortened session on Friday have also kept volatility high. The S&P 500 had settled a touch higher on Tuesday after logging large swings through the day.
At 6:31 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 123 points, or 0.34%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.28% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 47.75 points, or 0.29%.
Among other premarket movers, Tesla Inc fell 1.0% after top boss Elon Musk sold another 934,091 shares of the electric vehicle maker worth $1.05 billion after exercising options to buy 2.15 million shares.
Shares of PC makers HP Inc and Dell Technologies jumped 6.4% and 2.1%, respectively, after they logged a more than four-fold rise in quarterly profits amid increasing demand for personal computers.
(Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
