March 21 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures slipped on Monday as oil prices climbed and investors weighed developments around the Russia-Ukraine conflict, while Boeing shares fell after a 737 jet crashed in China.
The planemaker’s shares slid 7.8% in premarket trading after a China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) passenger jet, with 132 people on board crashed in the mountains of southern China. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash. read more
Energy stocks rose, with Occidental Petroleum up 3.1%, tracking Brent crude above $111 a barrel as European Union nations consider joining the United States in a Russian oil embargo. read more
Stock markets around the world opened the week on a downbeat note as Ukraine defied a Russian demand that its forces lay down arms before dawn on Monday in Mariupol. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv had yet to yield any major breakthroughs. read more
Hopes of an eventual peace deal along with a widely expected rate hike by the Federal Reserve had bolstered market sentiment last week, with the Wall Street’s three main indexes logging their biggest weekly percentage gains since early November 2020.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak at the National Association for Business Economics Conference at 1200 ET (1600 GMT) on Monday, while other policymakers were set to speak through the week after a hawkish rate hike path laid down by the U.S. central bank last week.
Shares of big banks were mixed, with Morgan Stanley (MS.N) down 0.8%. Barring Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), other megacap growth stocks slipped.
At 06:47 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 134 points, or 0.39%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 9.25 points, or 0.21%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 51 points, or 0.35%.
Nielsen Holdings (NLSN.N) tumbled 17.3% after it rejected an unsolicited acquisition proposal from a private equity consortium that valued the TV ratings company at $9.13 billion.
Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru
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Source: Reuters