(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures came under pressure on Tuesday as the prospect of fresh sanctions on Russia kept investors on edge, while megacap growth stocks looked set to retreat after strong gains a day earlier.
The European Commission is to propose to EU nations sweeping new sanctions, including a ban on imports of coal, rubber, chemicals and other products from Russia worth up to 9 billion euros ($9.86 billion) a year, an EU source told Reuters.
The West prepared new sanctions on Moscow after dead civilians were found lining the streets of a Ukrainian town seized from Russian invaders.
Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp rose about 0.3% in premarket trading after crude prices extended their rally on fears of tighter global supply. [O/R]
Megacap tech and growth stocks edged lower after helping the Nasdaq jump 1.9% in the previous session.
Twitter Inc gained 1.4% on Tuesday after a 27% surge in the previous session when Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk unveiled a big stake in the micro-blogging site.
Overall, stocks have rebounded in recent weeks after a rocky start to the year amid concerns about the ongoing war in Ukraine and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s tightening monetary policy to fight decades-high inflation.
The benchmark S&P 500 is down 3.9% so far in 2022 after falling as much as 12.5%.
At 07:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 85 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 10 points, or 0.22%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 32 points, or 0.21%.
Meanwhile, data from the Institute for Supply Management at 10:00 a.m. ET is expected to show that the non-manufacturing activity index rose to 58.4 in March, after a reading of 56.5 in the previous month.
Carnival Corp rose 3.7% after the cruise operator reported its highest booking week in its history, boosting peers Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd 2.4% and 2.2%, respectively.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
