Futures fall on concerns over rising yields, inflation expectations

US stock index futures slipped on Monday as climbing Treasury yields and prospects of rising inflation triggered caution over pricey equity valuations, hitting shares of high-flying technology-related companies.

Shares of Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc, Tesla Inc, Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc resumed their declines from the previous week, falling between 1% and 2.9% in trading before the bell.

A largely upbeat fourth-quarter earnings had powered Wall Street's main indexes to record highs earlier last week, but the rally lost steam on fears of a potential snag in countrywide inoculation efforts and inflation concerns rising from a raft of stimulus measures.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in his semi-annual testimony before Congress this week is likely to reiterate a commitment to keeping policy super easy for as long as needed to drive inflation higher.

The Dow closed almost flat for the week on Friday, while the benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted their first weekly declines this month.

Cyclical stocks have benefited recently from a rotation out of technology-related shares on hopes that they stand to gain from pent-up demand once the coronavirus pandemic is subdued.

Yields on 10-year Treasury notes have already reached 1.38% , above the psychological 1.30% level.

At 6:53 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 186 points, or 0.59%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 30.5 points, or 0.78%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 186.25 points, or 1.37%.

Boeing Co dropped 3.9% after a United Airlines plane's engine shed debris over Denver on Saturday, prompting the planemaker to urge airlines to suspend the use of its 777 jets with Pratt & Whitney 4000 engines.

Raytheon Technologies Corp, which owns Pratt & Whitney, also fell 2.9%.