By Noreen Burke
Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures pointed to a broadly lower open on Monday, as fears over the prospect of continued aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and the knock-on impact on economic growth weighed on investor sentiment.
At 06:56 ET (10:56 GMT), the Dow futures contract was down 313 points or 0.9%, S&P 500 futures traded 49 points or 1.1% lower, and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.5%.
The losses came after Wall Street’s three major indexes sold off on Friday and posted losses for the week after hawkish comments by Fed officials underlined their commitment to tighter monetary policy.
The Fed has hiked interest rates by 225 basis points since March in a bid to battle inflation which is running at the highest in four decades.
Investors are looking ahead to the Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later this week where Chair Jerome Powell is set to deliver the keynote speech on Friday, hoping for insights into the central bank’s view on inflation and the future path of interest rates.
The Fed is expected to deliver another rate hike at its upcoming September meeting, with the only question being whether it will be 50 or 75 basis points.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares were sharply lower in premarket trade after CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet on Sunday that the price of the company’s Full-Self Driving system, its top-level driver assistance program, is set to rise by 25% to $15,000 from $12,000 in September.
Earnings are set to continue Monday with Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) and Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) to report results after the bell.
Oil prices were slightly higher amid reports indicating that a deal reviving a nuclear agreement between Iran and the Western powers was close to being signed off.
U.S. crude futures were 0.5% higher at $90.88 a barrel, while the Brent contract edged up 0.3% to $97.08 a barrel.
Meanwhile, gold futures slid 0.7% to $1,748.70/oz, while the euro was 0.3% lower at $1.0012.