Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a sharply lower open on Wall Street on Thursday as a global selloff spurred by fears over rising bond yields, slowing global growth and trade tensions picked up speed.
The S&P 500 futures were down around 25 points or 0.91% by 6:36 AM ET (10:36 GMT), while Dow futures were down 262 points, or 1.03%. The tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 65 points, or 0.92%.
The losses came after the largest decline for U.S. stocks in more than eight months on Wednesday, as rising U.S. Treasury yields and widespread risk aversion spurred a flight from risky assets.
Treasury yields started to climb last week amid expectations for a faster than expected pace of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve as the outlook for the U.S. economy remains strong.
The sharp falls on Wall Street prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to renew his recent criticism of the Fed on Wednesday, calling it “crazy” for its plans to continue with gradual rate hikes in the coming months.
The president also said that Wednesday's stock market sell-off was in fact a long-awaited "correction."
"Actually it's a correction that we've been waiting for a long time, but I really disagree with what the Fed is doing,” Trump added.
Technology stocks remained in focus, after being particularly hard hit on Wednesday.
FAANG stocks were broadly lower, with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) down around 2% premarket and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) off 1.5%. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was down 1.6% ahead of the open.
In bond markets, U.S. Treasury prices edged higher, pushing yields lower across the curve, with the benchmark 10-year yield falling to 3.16%
Investors were awaiting the September report on U.S. consumer prices set for release at 8:30AM ET (1230GMT).
Consumer prices are expected to have risen 0.2% last month and 2.4% over the prior year, according to estimates.
In Europe, London’s FTSE100 fell into correction territory, having lost more than 10% of its value since hitting an all-time high in May. Meanwhile, the VIX volatility index hit its highest level since April.
Overnight in Asia, China’s stock market closed at its lowest level in almost four years, as worries over the trade war with the U.S. continued to weigh.
In commodities markets, oil headed for the largest two day decline since July ahead of the weekly report on U.S. oil inventories from the U.S. Energy Information Administration at 11:00AM ET.
The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies was down 0.4% to a one-and-a-half week low of 94.84.