Futures edge lower after Wall Street's two-day rally

[September 24, 2021]    By Devik Jain

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Friday, led by banking and technology shares following a sharp rally in the past two days after the Federal Reserve kept its policy stance largely in line with market expectations.

Big banks including JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp slipped about 0.5%, while oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp were down 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, in premarket trading.

The banking sub index and the S&P energy sector have gained nearly 2.5% and 3.8% so far this week.

Fears about a sooner-than-expected tapering amid signs of stalling U.S. economic growth and concerns over a spillover from China Evergrande's default have rattled investors in September, putting the benchmark S&P 500 index on course to snap a seven-month winning streak.

On Wednesday, the Fed signaled it would reduce its monthly bond purchases as soon as November and that interest rates could rise quicker than expected. Still, Wall Street's main indexes rallied in the past two session and are set for small weekly gains.

At 6:25 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 65 points, or 0.19%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 12.5 points, or 0.28%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 64.5 points, or 0.42%.

Mega-cap growth names Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Apple Inc fell between 0.5% and 0.6%.

Nike Inc shed 4.6% after the sportswear maker cut its fiscal 2022 sales expectations and warned of delays during the holiday shopping season.

Shares of cryptocurrency-related firms Coinbase Global, MicroStrategy Inc, Riot Blockchain and Marathon Patent Group slid between 3% and 6.1% after China's central bank vowed to crack down on cryptocurrency trading.

(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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