Devik Jain & Ambar Warrick

(Reuters) – U.S. stock futures dropped on Wednesday in anticipation of a slew economic data releases. Investors are nervous about inflation, and the prospects of faster interest rate increases heading into Thanksgiving.

At 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), data on jobless claims and durable goods, as well as a second estimate for third quarter GDP, are due.

The Federal Reserve is expecting personal consumption data on October at 10:00 am. ET (1500 GMT).

One stock Nordstrom Inc The stock plummeted 27.2% during premarket trading following the announcement by the retailer that its quarterly profit was impacted by labor costs. It also warned that there would be product shortages at off-price retailers heading into Christmas.

Gap Inc (NYSE 🙂 plunged 19.7% following a reduction in its full year forecast. The apparel retailer expects a $650 million revenue drop due to disruptions to the supply chain.

Two companies have set a dark tone for the sector in advance of Thanksgiving Weekend, which marks the beginning of the U.S. holiday seasons.

After rallying on the hope of higher interest rates, major Wall Street lenders suffered a similar slide. Bank of America (NYSE:) and JPMorgan (NYSE:) & Chase led early losses with declines of about half a percent each.

This week’s banks index surged by 4.1%, following a rise in Treasury yields after Jerome Powell was nominated for a second term at the Federal Reserve Chair. It boosted hopes of early tightening. [US/]

As investors discount the future earnings of this sector, rising interest rates led to investors pulling out technology stocks. This week’s decline in the price of technology stocks has been 1.8%.

Technology majors include Apple Inc. Microsoft Corp Each stock dropped by 0.5%

For clues about the pace of tapering COVID-era stimulative measures, the minutes from the Fed’s November 2-3 meeting are worth your attention. At the meeting, Fed officials agreed to reduce monthly asset purchases.

Volatility has been high due to low trading volumes and Friday’s shorter session. The S&P 500 had settled a touch higher on Tuesday after logging large swings through the day.

At 6:31 a.m. ET were down 123 point, or 0.34%. they were down 13 points or 0.28%, while the were down 47.75 point or 0.29%.

Tesla (NASDAQ) Inc declined 1.0% on premarket movers after Elon Musk, Tesla’s top executive, sold an additional 934 091 shares to make the electric car maker $1.05billion. He also exercised options to buy another 2.15 million shares.

After logging a nearly fourfold increase in quarterly profits, PC manufacturers HP Inc (NYSE 🙂 and Dell Technologies, (NYSE :), shares jumped 6.4% & 2.1% respectively amid an increasing demand for personal computer products.