Futures down on sluggish growth fears; data on tap

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Johann M Cherian

(Reuters) -U.S. stock futures slipped on Tuesday after weak manufacturing data sparked new worries about the strength of the world’s largest economy, even as markets awaited a slew of reports this week to gauge how much growth has slowed.

Stocks fell on Monday after survey data showed U.S. factory activity had slowed more than expected in May and construction spending dropped in April, although the and the Nasdaq closed the session slightly higher.

“It was a day when the U.S. economic exceptionalism theme was called into question,” Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, said in a note.

Megacap stocks including Nvidia (NASDAQ:), Apple (NASDAQ:) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:) were down between 0.2% and 0.3% in premarket trading. Gains in these rate-sensitive stocks boosted the Nasdaq in the previous session, as U.S. Treasury yields slipped.

Broadly strong corporate earnings, coupled with seemingly resilient economic growth, kept Wall Street optimistic and buoyed stocks over several months, despite forcing markets to dial down hopes for both the timing and pace of interest-rate cuts.

However, a string of recent data points to the economy slowing more than expected, causing investors to fret even as markets expect an earlier start to rate cuts.

Traders are now pricing in a nearly 62% chance of the Fed cutting rates in September, up from about 53% before the ISM data was out and under 50% last week, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.

Several key reports scheduled for release this week are expected to provide a clearer picture of U.S. economic health, particularly the labor market. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey is expected later on Tuesday, ahead of the closely watched nonfarm payrolls figures for May, due on Friday.

Factory orders data is also expected later in the day and the results of surveys on the services sector are due on Wednesday.

“The manufacturing report has put us on notice that the various employment data points this week and ISM services could all be genuine market-moving risk events, and the market will likely be sensitive to any downside surprises,” Weston said.

Monday’s trading was also impacted by a glitch at the New York Stock Exchange, triggering volatility in dozens of stocks. The NYSE later said the issue had been resolved and exchanges were canceling erroneous trades in affected stocks, including Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:).

At 7:08 a.m. ET, were down 163 points, or 0.42%, were down 25 points, or 0.47%, and were down 84 points, or 0.45%.

Among individual movers, Intel (NASDAQ:) gained 1.1% after the company launched its next generation Xeon server processors and priced its Gaudi 3 artificial intelligence accelerator chips below its rivals’ products.

Meta (NASDAQ:) and Snap lost 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively, after a report said New York was mulling a ban on social media companies using algorithms to steer content to children without parental consent.

Bath and Body Works dropped 7.5% after a lower revision to its quarterly profit forecast.

Oil companies fell, with shares of Exxon Mobil (NYSE:) and Chevron (NYSE:) both down 1% as demand worries weighed on crude prices. Energy stocks were the biggest sectoral decliners on Monday.