Wall Street futures slide on rate hike jitters; Meta rises

As investors analysed the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting, Wall Street futures declined on Thursday. However, Meta defied the trend by launching Threads, a Twitter-like app, and defying the decline in rate-sensitive technology and growth businesses.

The previous day saw a decline in U.S. market indexes as the Fed minutes revealed that, while agreeing to hold rates constant in June, the majority of policymakers projected further policy tightening.

Early premarket trading saw a decline in the majority of tech and growth megacaps, with Alphabet and Tesla down 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively.

After drawing millions of users within hours of launching Threads on Wednesday, Meta Platforms increased 1.7%.

After a disappointing 2022, large growth and technology equities, including Meta, have witnessed astronomical returns this year, with the Nasdaq Composite recording its largest first-half gain in forty years.

At 05:30 a.m. ET, Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 64.25 points, or 0.42%, while S&P 500 e-minis were down 19.25 points, or 0.43%. The Dow was down 154 points, or 0.45%, at this time.

Investors are paying close attention to the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) non-manufacturing PMI numbers as well as the U.S. unemployment claims, JOLTS, and private payrolls data due later in the day.

The drops of chipmakers Qualcomm and Intel continued, falling 1.2% each, as the trade conflict between Beijing and Washington heated up.