(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday, as worries about China’s economy dented sentiment globally after sharp gains on Wall Street last week driven by better-than-expected earnings and hopes of a less aggressive Federal Reserve.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Baidu Inc led the losses in early premarket trading, down 12.5% and 11.7%, respectively, as President Xi Jinping’s new leadership team heightened fears that growth will be sacrificed for ideology-driven policies.
Meanwhile, delayed data on gross domestic product showed the Chinese economy grew a better-than-expected 3.9% in the third quarter, but retail sales disappointed with a meager rise of 2.5%.
Tesla fell 3.5% after the electric-car maker cut starter prices for its Model 3 and Model Y cars by as much as 9% in China, reversing a trend of increases across the industry amid signs of softening demand in the world’s largest auto market.
Wall Street jumped on Friday after a report said the Fed will likely debate on a smaller interest rate hike in December, raising hopes the central bank may be poised to adopt a less aggressive policy stance.
All the three major indexes notched their biggest weekly percentage gains in four months last week, supported by better-than-feared third-quarter earnings so far.
Of the 99 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported quarterly earnings as of Friday, 74.7% beat analysts’ expectations, according to Refinitiv estimates. The long-term average is 66.2%.
Focus now shifts to reports this week from big tech and growth companies. Google-parent Alphabet Inc will report on Tuesday, followed by Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc on Wednesday and Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc on Thursday.
At 4:43 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 197 points, or 0.63%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 26.5 points, or 0.7%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 95 points, or 0.84%.
Investors were waiting for S&P Global’s flash survey on manufacturing and services sector activity in October for clues on the health of the U.S. economy amid rapidly rising interest rates.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
