U.S. stock futures pointed to a big decline Wednesday as October continued to be volatile amid concerns about rising rates, higher inflation, the state of the reopening and the debt limit.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 354 points, or 1%. S&P 500 futures shed 1.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 1.5%.
So far in the three prior trading sessions of October, the Dow has gained 483 points, lost 324 points and on Tuesday, jumped 312 points. And now futures point to another big decline.
It was a broad sell-off in premarket trading.
American Airlines and JetBlue led reopening plays lower, falling 3% each in premarket trading following a downgrade by Goldman Sachs. Goldman cited higher fuel prices and slower near-term demand.
Names linked to the global economic recovery declined. Shares of Boeing, General Electric and Ford were all lower in premarket trading.
Tech shares were also taking hits with Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all lower by more than than 1%.
The market saw a broad rally during Tuesday’s regular session with nine out of 11 S&P 500 sectors closing positive. The Dow gained 312 points, or 0.92%. The S&P 500 rose 1.05% and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.25%.
Mega-cap tech stocks closed higher Tuesday after being knocked down the prior trading session. Facebook stayed in focus following a lengthy outage and claims by a whistleblower that the company knows it’s harming people.
The financial sector finished Tuesday as the best performing segment of the S&P 500, up 1.78%. Other sectors geared toward a recovering economy also saw shares rise. Energy names gained as oil prices climbed. Cruise, airline and retail stocks also advanced.
A better-than-expected manufacturing reading Tuesday aided optimism about the economic recovery. The Institute for Supply Management’s services purchasing managers’ index report for September rose to 61.9 from 61.7 in August, 0.2 points better than expected.
“Investors lean into risk on the back of another strong business sentiment survey that may suggest that the Delta-driven growth slowdown of late summer is already a thing of the past,” Goldman Sachs’ Chris Hussey said in a note Tuesday.
Denim retailer Levi Strauss and alcoholic beverage corporation Constellation Brands are set to report quarterly earnings Wednesday.
The ADP private payrolls report for September is set to be released Wednesday. Also on the labor market front, the closely watched nonfarm payrolls report for September is slated for release Friday.
