US pre-open: Futures point to further losses ahead of earnings-heavy week

Wall Street futures were pointing to a negative open yet again on Monday amid an ongoing market sell-off that has seen the Dow Jones put on a losing performance in four-straight weeks.

As of 1225 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.82%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.92% and 0.95% weaker, respectively.

The Dow closed a whopping 981.36 points lower on Friday as market participants continued to mull over the likelihood of interest rate rises and prepped for earnings from a number of the country's major tech companies.

Fears regarding a fresh Covid-19 outbreak in China were weighing on sentiment ahead of the bell, with oil prices and bond yields heading south, as investors also geared up for a big week of earnings from major tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft.

As far as today's corporate headlines go, Tesla boss Elon Musk appeared to be closer to winning over the board of Twitter with his announcement that he had lined up $46.5bn, or $54.20 on a per share basis, in financing to take over the social media giant. Progress was made at talks between both sides on Sunday and a deal might materialise as soon as this week, although it was not guaranteed that would happen, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In terms of earnings, Coca-Cola beat first-quarter earnings projections with an EPS of $0.64 per share on revenues of $10.5bn, up 16% and ahead of the $9.83bn expected on the Street. Despite the cessation of its Russian unit, Coca-Cola also reiterated full-year guidance for revenue growth of 7-8% and comparable earnings per share growth of 5-6%.

Still to come, Whirlpool will report after the close of trading.

On the macro front, March's national activity index from the Chicago Federal Reserve will be published at 1330 BST.