(Reuters) – Futures tied to U.S. stocks on Thursday started September on a dour note as weak factory activity surveys from Europe and Asia amplified fears of a global economic slowdown.
Rising borrowing costs, high inflation, the fallout of the Ukraine war and China’s COVID curbs led to tepid manufacturing activity across Germany, Britain, Japan and China, although there were signs of easing cost pressures.
In the United States, the Institute for Supply Management’s report, due at 10 a.m. ET, is expected to show manufacturing activity dropped to 52.0 last month from 52.8 in July, the lowest reading since June 2020.
A reading on weekly jobless claim is due at 08:30 a.m. ET.
In the previous session, Wall Street’s main indexes cemented their weakest August performance in seven years as investors worried about how much and how long the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates.
The benchmark S&P 500 has dropped 8.6% since hitting a four-month high in August, with much of the losses triggered by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish view on raising interest rates.
Money markets predict a 73.1% chance of a third-straight 75 basis points increase in rates in September and expect it to peak at 3.9% in March 2023.
At 06:23 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 177 points, or 0.56%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 28 points, or 0.71%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 132.25 points, or 1.08%.
Nvidia Corp slid 5.6% in premarket trading after U.S. officials told the chip designer to stop exporting two top computing chips for artificial intelligence work to China.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc dipped 3.7% after it was told to stop exporting its top artificial intelligence chip to China.
(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
