Futures tracking the S&P 500 were subdued on Friday following a sharp pullback on Wall Street as tech-related stocks rebounded but sentiment remained fragile, with US bond yields at one-year high.
Shares of Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc edged up in premarket trading, but were headed for their worst week in months.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield eased to 1.478 per cent after jumping 1.614 per cent overnight, roiling stock markets. Wall Street's fear gauge hovered at a one-month high.
"If rates continue to move that quickly, the markets wouldn't like that," said Eric Diton, President and Managing Director at The Wealth Alliance in New York.
"I don't see reasons for panic out there. This is simply a normal overdue pullback."
The Nasdaq on Thursday notched its worst daily percentage drop since October. The major averages were knocked off their all-time highs last week after a sharp rise in US Treasury yields triggered a selloff in some of the mega-cap technology stocks.
Tech stocks are particularly sensitive to rising yields because their value rests heavily on future earnings, which are discounted more deeply when bond returns go up.
The Dow is poised for its best month since November 2020 as investors bought into cyclical companies set to benefit from an economic reopening, while the tech-laden Nasdaq remains on track to wipe out nearly all of its gains for the month.
At 07:31 pm IST, Dow E-minis were down 13 points, or 0.04 per cent and S&P 500 E-minis were up 15.75 points, or 0.41 per cent. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 116.25 points, or 0.91 per cent.
Data on US personal consumption, which includes one of the Federal Reserve's favoured inflation measures, showed core inflation rose to 0.3 per cent last month from 0.2 per cent in December.
Stimulus will be back in focus as the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives aims to pass President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill on Friday in what would be the first major legislative victory of his presidency.
US banks Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs dropped about 1 per cent while energy companies Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp shed about 2 per cent each as oil prices slipped.
GameStop Corp jumped 11 per cent as retail investors pushed up the stock in a renewed rally that could see it clock its second-best week.
Salesforce.com Inc slipped about 1.3 per cent as the online software company forecast full-year profit below market expectations.
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