US STOCKS-US stock futures slide as commodity rout rattles markets

‌U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday, as a violent selloff in precious metals unsettled investors at the start of a week packed with corporate earnings and major economic data.

‌U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday, as a violent selloff in precious metals unsettled investors at the start of a week packed with corporate earnings and major economic data. Gold dropped as much as 6% and silver tumbled 10%, as commodity exchange CME Group boosted ⁠margin requirements for the precious metals following a historic plunge on Friday. The rout rippled across markets as leveraged investors were forced to unwind positions to meet margin calls.

U.S.-listings of gold and silver miners dropped in premarket trading. Newmont fell 0.5%, while Harmony Gold and Sibanye Stillwater slid 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively. Hecla Mining and Endeavour Silver slipped 0.4% and 1.2%, respectively.

The metals selloff ​deepened last week after U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair to replace Jerome Powell in May, a move that investors largely viewed ‍as hawkish. "Markets are trading cautiously as investors navigate a dense macro calendar and recalibrate expectations around the pace of global monetary easing," said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.

"This positioning-led adjustment has unfolded against a backdrop of thin liquidity and heightened sensitivity to macro headlines, amplifying intraday volatility." Shares of energy companies dropped as oil prices fell 5%, after Trump said Iran was "seriously talking" with Washington, signalling de-escalation and easing supply disruption concerns. Exxon Mobil ⁠and Chevron ‌fell between 1.1% and 1.8%.

At 07:00 a.m. ET, ⁠Dow E-minis were down 55 points, or 0.11%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 34.5 points, or 0.5%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 217.5 points, or 0.85%. The volatility VIX index climbed to 18.59, hovering near a two-week ‍high after last week's choppy stretch, triggered by mixed mega-cap earnings and heightened policy uncertainty stemming from Trump's pick of Warsh.

Despite bouts of selloff in January due to geopolitical tensions, all three indexes ended ​the month higher, with the S&P crossing 7,000 points for the first time. Tech mega-caps slipped in premarket trading, with Nvidia and Tesla down 1.3% and 2.1%, respectively, while ⁠Meta and Alphabet lost around 1%.

Microsoft and Amazon lost about 0.7% each. Investors face another heavy week of tech earnings, with 128 of S&P 500 companies expected to report results, including Alphabet, Amazon and AMD.

Market reaction to last ⁠week's tech results underscored the narrowing tolerance for costly capital-spending plans unless companies can show accelerating growth. Microsoft shares notched their worst week since March 2020 on Friday, after cloud revenue disappointed, heightening scrutiny over whether the industry's multi-billion dollar AI investments will show meaningful returns.

Disney shares gained 2.4% after posting first-quarter earnings above Wall Street expectations. The U.S. entered what ⁠is expected to be a brief shutdown on Saturday after Congress failed to approve a deal to keep a wide swath of operations funded.

Economic data this week will provide ⁠several checkpoints on the health of the U.S. ‌economy. January manufacturing PMI data is due later on Monday, followed by S&P Global's composite PMI on Wednesday. Labor-market indicators take center stage later in the week with JOLTS, jobless claims and Friday's nonfarm payrolls report.

Among other stock moves, Humana shares fell 2.1% after Morgan Stanley ⁠downgraded the stock to 'underweight' from 'equal weight.' Best Buy dropped 1.6% after a JPMorgan rating downgrade.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)