Wall Street set to open lower as yields continue to rise

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U.S. stocks were set to open lower on Monday as Treasury yields continued to rise on expectations of a tighter monetary policy, while Bank of America wrapped up earnings from Wall Street lenders with a better-than-expected quarterly profit.

Bank of America Corp, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, rose 0.9% in premarket trading as strong growth in its consumer lending business helped cushion the blow from a slowdown in deal-making.

Market response to first-quarter bank earnings have been mixed as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc combined put aside $3.36 billion in credit loss reserves due to risks from the Ukraine war and rising inflation.

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“Earnings will be good, but given the multiple years of high stock market returns, people don’t look for good anymore they look for great,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.

“The fact remains that the pressures on the market are not going away. The combination of Fed policy, very high energy costs and the problems brought about by the Ukraine war are going to sit on the markets for the next few weeks unless there is some resolution.”

Overall, analysts expect aggregate annual S&P 500 earnings growth of 6.3%, as of last week, less optimistic than the 7.5% growth projected at the start of the year, according to Refinitiv data.

Companies including Netflix, Tesla Johnson & Johnson and International Business Machines are set to report this week.

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Megacap stocks including Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp edged lower as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose to a fresh high of 2.83%, its highest since December 2018.

Market-leading technology and growth stocks have been hammered this month as investors expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates several times this year, threatening to erode the future earnings of the companies.

Tesla Inc rose 0.4% as the electric automaker began preparing to reopen its Shanghai plants as the city speeds up efforts to get back to normal after a nearly three-week COVID shutdown.

Data earlier showed China’s economy slowed in March despite better-than-expected first-quarter growth numbers, worsening an outlook already clouded by COVID-19 curbs and the Ukraine war.

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There was little hope of peace in Ukraine, with Russia hitting hundreds of military targets in Ukraine overnight, destroying command posts with air-launched missiles.

At 08:39 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 24 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 8.75 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 39 points, or 0.28%.

Twitter rose 2.6% after the micro-blogging platform adopted “poison pill” on Friday to restrict Tesla CEO Elon Musk from raising his stake to beyond 15% for a one-year period.

Didi Global Inc slumped 19.1% after the Chinese ride hailing giant said it will hold an extraordinary general meeting on May 23 to vote on its delisting plans in the United States. (Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)