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Mega-cap firms Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp fell 3% each in
premarket trading, with Nasdaq 100 futures plunging by a similar
margin.
The Fed on Wednesday matched market expectations by hiking
interest rates by 75 basis points. It also projected a slowing
economy and rising unemployment in the coming months in the face
of the worst inflation in 40 years.
"We view it as increasingly likely that a recession and higher
unemployment will be necessary to tame inflation: with such a
gloomy macro picture looming over the markets," said Geir Lode,
head of global equities at Federated Hermes Limited.
Following the Fed meeting, Wells Fargo said the odds of a
recession now stand at more than 50%.
The Swiss National Bank raised its policy interest rate for the
first time in 15 years in a surprise move on Thursday, while the
Bank of England hiked borrowing costs by quarter of a percentage
point.
The S&P 500 is down 20.5% year-to-date and is in a bear market
as investors grapple with a sharp slowdown in growth. The Nasdaq
Composite and the S&P 500 indexes were set to mark their 10th
weekly decline in past 11 weeks.
At 6:40 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 601 points, or 1.96%, S&P
500 e-minis were down 91.25 points, or 2.41%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were down 330.75 points, or 2.84%.
On the equities front, Morgan Stanley led losses among major
U.S. banks with a 2% slide.
Twitter Inc firmed 2.6% ahead of Elon Musk's meeting with its
employees after a report said he was expected to reiterate his
desire to own the social media company.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru;
Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
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