(Reuters) – Futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled nearly 3% on Monday as a widely watched part of the Treasury yield curve inverted on growing fears that aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve will tip the economy into recession.
Several investors are now forecasting a hike of 75 basis point this week instead of a 50 basis point hike, following a hotter-than-expected inflation reading on Friday.
The two-year 10-year U.S. Treasury yield curve briefly inverted for the first time since April, a move viewed by many as a reliable signal that a recession could come in the next year or two. [US/]
Shares of Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc dropped over 3% in early premarket trading.
“Reaction to Friday’s print was really bad and now it is just pure speculation on Wednesday’s rate decision, with most looking at 75bps,” said Matthew Dibb, chief operating officer at crypto fund manager Stack Funds.
“I think we see major stocks gap down 5% on open.”
At 05:15 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 605 points, or 1.93%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 93.5 points, or 2.4%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 347.75 points, or 2.94%.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
