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Stocks- U.S. Futures Fall As Interest Rate Worry Returns

Published 01/03/2018, 11:46
Updated 01/03/2018, 11:58
© Reuters.  U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Wall Street.

© Reuters. U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Wall Street.

Investing.com – U.S. Futures were lower on Thursday as investors worry that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates.

The S&P 500 futures fell 12 points or 0.44% to 2,701.00 as of 7:03 AM ET (12:03 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 128 points or 0.51% to 24,910.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was down 29 points or 0.42% to 6,835.75.

Wall Street fell in the red for the second day at the last session after hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday. Powell told Congress he thought the economy had strengthened, leaving investors worried that the central bank may hike up interest rates four times instead of three.

The Fed chair testifies on the hill again today, speaking before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 GMT).

Traders will also be looking ahead to a flurry of data in the afternoon for clues about the strength of the U.S. economy. Jobless claims, personal income and outlays comes out at 8:30 AM ET (13:30 GMT) while the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) is scheduled for 9:45 AM ET (14:45 GMT) and the manufacturing ISM report on business is expected at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 GMT).

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOX) was among the top performers in pre-market trading, surging 15.98% after it said it was still bidding for Sky despite a counter bid by Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA). Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inched up 0.31% while Rocky Brands Inc (NASDAQ:RCKY) rose 15.49%.

Elsewhere Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched down 0.08% while Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) Group (NYSE:CS) dipped 1.25% and PCM Inc (NASDAQ:PCMI) slumped 16.20%.

In earnings news, Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY), Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) and Liberty Media (NASDAQ:FWONA) are some of the companies reporting their financial results on Thursday.

In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 197 points or 1.59% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 58 points or 1.10% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 51 points or 0.71%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 39 points or 1.15% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 120 points or 1.22%.

In commodities, gold futures were down 0.48% to $1,311.60 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.65% to $61.24 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.09% to 90.69.

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