By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
(Reuters) – The Nasdaq futures hit a record high on Wednesday as a fall in Treasury yields supported tech-heavy growth stocks, while investors focused on the Federal Reserve’s minutes from the June meeting to gauge the trajectory of policy support going forward.
Yield on the U.S. 10-year notes slipped for the seventh straight session, while mega-cap technology names Facebook Inc Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc gained between 0.6% and 0.7% in premarket trading.
Fast-growing technology stocks are sensitive to yields as their value rests heavily on future earnings, which are discounted more deeply when bond returns go up.
On the other hand, rate-sensitive banking stocks like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase & Co edged lower, adding to sharp losses in the previous session.
The Fed minutes, due at 2 p.m. ET, is expected to offer clues on how the U.S. central bank may begin to pare its large bond-buying program amid signs of quickening economic recovery.
Wall Street has been concerned over runaway inflation, with investors moving between economy-linked value stocks and growth names in the past few sessions.
The Dow and S&P 500 fell on Tuesday, with financials and other groups closely tied to economic growth leading declines, while the Nasdaq notched a second-straight closing record.
At 6:47 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 31 points, or 0.09%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 7.75 points, or 0.18%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 70.5 points, or 0.48%.
Oil stocks Exxon Mobil, Schlumberger NV, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp, Occidental Petroleum Corp and Halliburton Co rose between 0.7% and 3.4%, tracking crude prices.
China’s market regulator said it has fined a number of internet companies including Didi Global, Tencent and Alibaba for failing to report earlier merger and acquisition deals for approval.
U.S.-listed shares of Didi fell 4.3%, while Alibaba edged 0.4% higher.
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
