Dow futures fall sharply; sentiment hit by hawkish Fed, rising yields

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Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures traded lower Tuesday, with the Federal Reserve’s indications of a tighter than expected monetary policy next year hitting sentiment.

By 06:35 ET (10:35 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 125 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 20 points, or 0.4%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 70 points, or 0,5%.

Indices set for losing month on hawkish Fed

The main indices on Wall Street are still feeling the impact from last week’s surprisingly hawkish Federal Reserve meeting, with the policymakers signaling another rate increase this year and just two rate cuts next year, down from the four forecast at the June meeting.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari emphasized the point on Monday, stating that given the surprising resilience of the U.S. economy, the Fed probably needs to raise borrowing rates further and keep them high for some time to bring inflation back down to 2%.

On Monday, the benchmark S&P 500, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, and 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed, snapping four-day losing streaks. 

But all of the indices are still on course to finish September sharply in the red, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down 5.4% in September, heading for its worst month since December, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 3.8% and 2.1%. 

Moody’s warns about shutdown damage

Also weighing on sentiment is the uncertainty surrounding a potential federal government shutdown, an occurrence that would harm the country's credit, rating agency Moody's (NYSE:MCO) said on Monday.

This warning comes just a month after Fitch downgraded the U.S. by one notch on the back of a debt ceiling crisis, meaning Moody’s is the last of the major agencies to still maintain the U.S. with the premier triple ‘A’ rating.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose as high as 4.566%, a 16-year peak, pushing the U.S. dollar to a 10-month peak.

Economic data due for release Tuesday include August new home sales and the September consumer confidence, which are both expected to show a small decrease from the prior months.

Alibaba to list logistics unit in Hong Kong

In corporate news, earnings are due from warehouse retailer Costco (NASDAQ:COST) and whole foods distributor United Natural Foods (NYSE:UNFI).

Additionally, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) is set to list its logistics unit Cainiao on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Chinese e-commerce giant said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Alibaba will continue to hold more than 50% of the shares of Cainiao after the spinoff.

Crude rebounds from losing week 

Oil prices fell Tuesday as renewed stress in China’s property market raised concerns about economic growth this year in the world’s largest crude importer.

Embattled developer China Evergrande (HK:3333) Group warned earlier this week that it was unable to issue new debt, putting the focus firmly on the release of key Chinese purchasing managers’ index data for September later in the week.

By 06:35 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.7% lower at $89.09 a barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 0.7% to $91.28. 

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,931.65/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0597.

(Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)