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* Futures: Dow down 0.05%, S&P 500 up 0.17%, Nasdaq up 0.61%
* Technology-related stocks lead premarket gains
* Tesla falls on warning of challenges of scaling up
production
(Adds comments, updates prices throughout)
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain
Sept 22 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes were set
to open higher on Tuesday, with beaten-down shares of
technology-related companies leading early gains, while Dow
futures were subdued on uncertainty over more U.S. fiscal
stimulus.
All three of Wall Street's main indexes started the week on
the back foot as fears about a new round of lockdowns in Europe
and a stalemate in Congress over the size and shape of another
coronavirus-response bill dented hopes of a swift economic
recovery.
The blue-chip Dow .DJI closed Monday with its worst
session in two weeks, while the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX ended
just under 9% down from its record high on Sept. 2, floating
above correction territory.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC was largely unchanged, while
declines were mostly in value-oriented sectors such as
industrials .SPLRCI , energy .SPNY and financials .SPSY .
"Today is sort of a reassessment day when investors are
going to assess whether this pullback has further to go on the
downside," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA
in New York.
Investors are now bracing for an extended period of market
volatility on concerns over growing political uncertainty in
Washington, which have been sharpened by the death of Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Between now and the (Nov. 3 presidential) election there
will be a lot of uncertainty. You will see a lot of volatility,
a lot of short-term trades," Stovall said.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday will make the
first of three appearances on Capitol Hill this week to address
lawmakers' questions and concerns about the raft of emergency
measures the central bank has taken to help support the economy
during the pandemic. At 9:04 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 13 points,
or 0.05%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 5.5 points, or 0.17%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 66.75 points, or 0.61%.
Early premarket gainers included Microsoft Corp MSFT.O ,
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O and Facebook Inc FB.O , all of which have fuelled a
Wall Street rally since a coronavirus-driven crash in March.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O fell 4.5% after Chief Executive Officer
Elon Musk warned about the difficulties of speeding up
production as an expert cautioned the carmaker's increased
reliance on large-scale aluminium parts could bring new
manufacturing challenges. Autozone Inc AZO.N rose 3.7% after the auto parts retailer
reported better-than-expected sales and profit for the fourth
quarter.
Oracle Corp ORCL.N fell 1.3% on report that Beijing was
unlikely to approve a proposed deal by the software maker and
Walmart WMT.N for ByteDance's TikTok.