(NewsNation) — U.S. stock index futures fell on Tuesday after a slew of underwhelming earnings reports, while investors braced for a big interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve this week to tame surging prices.
Pfizer Inc slipped 0.7% in premarket trading as the drugmaker stuck to its annual sales forecasts for its COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral pill Paxlovid.
Estee Lauder Cos Inc slumped 9.5% after the cosmetics maker cut its full-year sales forecast on fresh coronavirus restrictions in China and the crisis in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the U.S. central bank kicks off its two-day policy meeting later on Tuesday, with traders seeing a 93.9% chance of a 50 basis points hike. Focus is squarely on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference on Wednesday for comments on the future path of interest rates and balance sheet reduction.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR hovered at 3%, having pushed above the key psychological level on Monday for the first time since late 2018.
Uncertainty around the Fed’s policy move, mixed earnings from some Big Tech companies, the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the pandemic-related lockdown in China hammered Wall Street in April.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped nearly 13.3% last month, its worst monthly performance since October 2008, as richly valued high-growth stocks came under pressure from rising rates.
Amazon.com fell 0.9% in premarket trading on Tuesday, leading to losses among mega cap growth stocks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on retaliatory economic sanctions against the West that will forbid the export of products and raw materials to people and entities that it has sanctioned.
Biogen Inc dipped 3.0% after it reported a 26% fall in quarterly profit and said its Chief Executive Officer Michel Vounatsos will step down.
DuPont de Nemours fell 2.9% after the maker of industrial material cut its annual sales and earnings forecast to reflect higher raw material and logistics costs.
Reuters contributed to this story.