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Moderna ( MRNA ) slides after cutting 2025 sales forecast
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Chip stocks fall as US tightens grip on AI chip flows
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Futures off: Dow 0.25%, S&P 500 0.77%, Nasdaq 1.16%
(Updates with analyst comment)
By Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta
Jan 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on
Monday as yields surged after robust payroll numbers last week
bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve will maintain a
hawkish stance for most of 2025.
At 07:21 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 107 points,
or 0.25%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 45.25 points, or
0.77% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 243.25 points, or
1.16%.
Futures tracking the domestically sensitive Russell 2000
index declined 1.1% to their lowest since September
2024. The index fell more than 2% into correction
territory on Friday, when the payroll numbers were released,
from the intraday high it had touched in late November.
Wall Street's fear gauge hit a more than three-week
high on Monday.
Wall Street's main indexes logged their second consecutive
week of declines in the previous session after multiple
better-than-expected reports, including one on employment and
another on services activity, raised expectations that inflation
could be running high in the world's largest economy.
Investors also priced in the likelihood that the incoming
Donald Trump administration's policies - such as tariffs and a
clampdown on illegal immigration - could threaten global trade
and fuel price pressures at a time when the U.S. Federal Reserve
has also signaled a cloudy outlook for monetary policy. Trump is
expected to take office on Jan. 20.
After an initial spike, yields on longer-dated Treasury
bonds are pinned at multi-month highs.
Interest-rate futures are now reflecting just 26 basis
points worth of cuts by December this year, according to data
compiled by LSEG.
"The robust labour market, along with the recent pickup in
inflation, are both making it difficult for the Federal Reserve
to justify further rate cuts," David Morrison, senior market
analyst at Trade Nation said in a note.
"Inflation had already started to creep up again, even
as the Fed cut rates by a bumper 50 basis points in September -
something that looks like a serious policy mistake, compounded
by additional cuts in November and December," Morrison said.
The Consumer Price Index figure and the central bank's Beige
Book on economic activity, both due on Wednesday, could help
investors gauge the central bank's policy outlook.
The risk-off stance hit megacaps, which have led much of the
rally in U.S. stocks over the last two years. Tesla
slid 2.9%, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) dropped 0.9% and Alphabet
lost 0.6% in premarket trading.
Chip stocks such as Nvidia ( NVDA ) dropped 3.1%, Advanced
Micro Devices ( AMD ) fell 1.7% and Broadcom ( AVGO ) lost 2.5%
after the U.S. government said it would further restrict
artificial-intelligence chip and technology exports.
Among others, Moderna ( MRNA ) slid 17% after cutting its
2025 sales forecast by $1 billion, hurt by the slow launch of
its respiratory syncytial virus shot and weak demand for
COVID-19 vaccines.
Major lenders JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM ), Wells Fargo ( WFC )
, Goldman Sachs ( GS ) and Citigroup ( C/PN ) are due to
report earnings on Wednesday.