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Chinese and European stock markets fell, while oil slid as data
showed China's economic activity cooled sharply in April as
widening COVID-19 lockdowns took a heavy toll on consumption,
industrial production and employment.
Wall Street closed sharply higher on Friday, but still the S&P
500 and the Nasdaq posted their longest weekly losing streaks in
over a decade.
Investors have been worried that aggressive interest rate hikes
by the Federal Reserve to combat decades-high inflation could
hurt the U.S, economy, with the conflict in Ukraine, supply
chain snarls and the latest pandemic-related lockdowns in China
further exacerbating the situation.
Goldman Sachs economists cut their forecast for U.S. GDP growth
to 2.4% in 2022 from 2.6% previously, citing tighter financial
conditions.
The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq have fallen 15.6% and
24.5%, respectively, so far this year, with growth stocks taking
a sharp hit on concerns that bigger interest rate hikes could
hurt their future cash flows.
Traders are now pricing a near 82% chance of a 50 basis point
hike by the Fed in June. [IRPR]
Barring Tesla Inc, other megacap growth companies such as
Microsoft Corp, Google owner-Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com, Apple Inc
and Meta Platforms slipped about 0.3% in premarket trading.
Big banks were mixed, with Bank of America down 0.2%.
At 07:21 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 28 points, or 0.09%, S&P
500 e-minis were down 11 points, or 0.27%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were down 51.75 points, or 0.42%.
After worrying inflation and consumer sentiment data last week,
focus is now on the retail sales report due on Tuesday.
Retailers such as Walmart Inc, Home Depot and Target Corp are
also due to report their quarterly results this week.
Spirit Airlines jumped 17.1% after JetBlue Airways launched a
hostile all-cash takeover bid for the discount carrier. JetBlue
shares slipped 1%.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
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