Nasdaq futures fall nearly 2% as bond yields spike

[March 12, 2021]  (Reuters) - Nasdaq futures fell nearly 2% on Friday after rebounding more than 6% in the past three sessions, as a spike in U.S. bond yields reignited inflation worries and sent investors scurrying to the perceived safety of the dollar.

Wall Street's main indexes have come under pressure in the past few weeks as a consistent rise in borrowing costs has raised fears of a sudden tapering of monetary stimulus. The yield on the benchmark 10-year notes rose back above 1.60% on Friday to approach the one-year highs touched last week.

Improving economic data and more fiscal stimulus have also fueled concerns of higher inflation despite assurances from the Federal Reserve to maintain an accommodative policy. All eyes will now be on the Fed's policy meeting next week for further cues on inflation.

At 5:40 a.m. ET, Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 230 points, or 1.76%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 22.5 points, or 0.57%, and Dow e-minis were down 18 points, or 0.06%.

The Nasdaq has been particularly hit by the sell-off in recent weeks and entered correction territory on Monday as investors swapped richly valued technology stocks with those of energy, mining and industrials companies that are poised to benefit more from an economic recovery.

The Nasdaq logo is displayed at the Nasdaq Market site in New York, U.S., May 2, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The yield-sensitive group of Facebook Inc Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc, Google-parent Alphabet Inc, Tesla Inc and Microsoft Corp was down between 1.7% and 4.4% in premarket trading.

Big U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc were among the few gainers in early deals.

(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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