US pre-open: Tech stocks to weigh on markets early on

US stocks were set to fall on Monday as markets continued to retreat from recent record highs, with the tech sector providing a drag early on following reports that China is reducing its reliance on American chips.

By 0705 in New York, futures were pointing to a 0.2% fall on the Dow, a 0.3% drop on the S&P 500 and a 0.4% dip on the Nasdaq Composite, with the Dow and S&P 500 set to decline for the second straight day after hitting new highs last Thursday.

Chip makers AMD and Intel were under pressure early on after the Financial Times reported that the Chinese government is introducing rules to phase out the use of microprocessors made by the two companies from federal IT systems. Beijing also wants to use domestic options to replace Microsoft's Windows OS, the FT said.

In other corporate news, Apple, Meta and Alphabet were hitting headlines ahead of the opening bell on the back of concerns that they would be fined by European regulators due to uncompetitive practices. The probes relate to the Digital Markets Act introduced in 2022, and companies could be fined up to 10% of annual turnover if found to have breached the rules.

Monday will be a relatively quiet session in terms of economic data, with the Chicago Fed National Activity Index and US new home sales the only major releases worth keeping an eye out for.

However, scheduled speeches from Federal Reserve members Raphael Bostic (the Atlanta Fed president) and Lisa Cook (on the Board of Governors) will likely be closed watched.

A number of important datapoints will be released in the coming days, including durable goods orders on Tuesday, revisions to fourth-quarter GDP figures on Thursday and the all-important PCE price index – the Fed's preferred measure of inflation – on Friday. However, markets will be closed on Friday for the Good Friday holiday.