Wall St set to open lower as Treasury yields hit nine-month high

WALL Street’s main indexes were set to open lower on Thursday as a jump in bonds yields, spurred partly by Fitch’s downgrade of U.S. long-term credit rating, pressured rate-sensitive shares.

Most megacap growth and technology stocks including Apple , Alphabet and Microsoft slipped between 0.3% and 0.7% in premarket trading, as yields on the 10-year note rose to a nine-month high.

Separately, a report showed the number of Americans

filing new claims

for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week, while layoffs dropped to an 11-month low in July as labor market conditions remain tight.

The yield on the 10-year benchmark note rose 1.2 basis points to 4.158% after the jobless claims data. Treasury yields have been rising since Wednesday after strong

private employment data

and the announced refunding of the U.S. government’s maturing debt.

“I would take that (jobless claims) data as a non-event, it is right on target,” said Andre Bakhos, managing member at Ingenium Analytics.

“What is a greater concern and that has created a reverberation globally is the Fitch downgrade. There’s quite a bit of concern on how things have gotten out of control in the near term.”

Meanwhile, Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin on Thursday said U.S. inflation remains too high, although recent readings showing price pressures have eased notably were welcome.

Stocks closed lower on Wednesday as investors took the opportunity to book profits on five months of gains after Fitch downgraded the United States top-tier rating, citing fiscal deterioration and governance erosion.

Traders now await the U.S. non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) and June factory orders to assess the strength of the U.S. economy.

At 8:50 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 62 points, or 0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 13.75 points, or 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 82.25 points, or 0.53%.

Earnings are also in focus as Apple and Amazon.com are due to report quarterly results after market close.

Of the two-thirds of the S&P 500 companies that have reported so far, 79.9% have topped earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data on Wednesday.

Qualcomm tumbled 9.7% in trading before the bell as the San Diego, California-based company’s fourth-quarter sales forecast fell below market expectations.

The company said it would likely cut jobs as consumer spending on gadgets such as smartphones remained stubbornly weak amid slowing global economic growth.

Peers Nvidia and Intel eased nearly 1% each.

PayPal Holdings shed 8.9% as investors were disappointed by the payments firm’s quarterly operating margin, even as executives said they expect improvement towards the end of the year.

DoorDash rose 0.7% after the delivery firm raised its annual core profit forecast for a second time and posted an upbeat quarterly revenue as groceries and food orders jumped.

Meanwhile, Moderna gained 1.2% as the company raised its annual forecast for COVID-19 vaccine sales to up to $8 billion. – Reuters