Wall Street Set To Open Modestly Lower As Global Growth Fears Persist

Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open slightly lower on Monday, as investors struggled to shrug off global growth fears even as a report showed that President Donald Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russia.

S&P 500 futures initially rose on Sunday after Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion, but the report left unresolved the issue of whether Trump obstructed justice by undermining the investigations that have dogged his presidency.

That followed the main indexes biggest one-day percentage declines since Jan. 3 on Friday, triggered by weak factory data from the United States, Europe and Japan that also caused the inversion of U.S. Treasury yield curve for the first time since 2007.

An inverted yield curve is widely seen as a leading indicator of recession.

“Markets are not overcoming the concerns of the global economic climate and the fact that the 3-month treasury yields rose above that of the 10-year notes, creating an inversion,” said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist and senior portfolio manager at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.

“The concerns of global growth, without a China-U.S. trade deal, will linger in the background and continue to weigh on markets.”

Top U.S. officials travel to Beijing for the latest round of high-level talks, which are scheduled to start on March 28.

Meanwhile, a survey from Germany, Europe’s largest economy, showed that business morale improved unexpectedly in March after six consecutive drops, boosting sentiment and helping yields on the 10-year bonds to move back above the three-month rates.

At 8:36 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 24 points, or 0.09 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.11 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 17.75 points, or 0.24 percent.

Among stocks trading premarket, Apple Inc climbed 0.9 percent ahead of an event where the company is widely expected to launch its video streaming service. The event is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET.

Boeing Co rose 0.8 percent after the planemaker said it will brief pilots and regulators this week on software and training updates for its 737 MAX aircraft, with Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways also expressing confidence in the company despite a recent crash.

Akamai Technologies fell 4.4 percent after a report brokerage Deutsche Bank had downgraded the stock to “sell” from “hold”.

Viacom Inc’s shares rose 3.8 percent after company and AT&T Inc renewed their contract to continue carriage of Viacom’s services. AT&T shares rose 0.3 percent.

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