Wall Street stocks fell before the bell on Tuesday as traders returning from a long weekend followed new data showing China’s economy is still struggling to recover.
Futures on the S&P 500 (^GSPC) were down 0.1%, while those on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) were broadly unchanged, both pointing to deeper early losses. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.3% as a rise in 10-year Treasury yields weighed on growth stocks.
Shares of Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Apple ( AAPL ) slipped before trading opened after the Labor Day holiday.
The three major gauges are coming off a winning week, with the S&P 500 seeing its best weekly performance since June, on hopes that the Federal Reserve will refrain from raising interest rates at its September meeting.
Data on Tuesday showed that China’s services activity fell to an eight-month low in August, reviving worries about a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy and what that means for global demand.
Amid the recession debate, Goldman Sachs analysts cut their chances of a U.S. recession, citing rising inflation and a still resilient labor market. Additionally, they played down the idea that a prolonged drag on the Fed’s rate hike campaign would push the economy into a deep recession.
With mild earnings and the focus ahead of the economic calendar likely to remain on the Fed this week, investors looking at current forces in stocks may find few reasons to cheer. September is historically a bad month for marketing.
That said, some analysts believe September may not be as bad as expected, pointing to factors such as excitement around AI, cash on the sidelines and the release of Apple’s new iPhone.
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