(REUTERS)
The US stock indexes were poised to open lower on Tuesday after stronger-than-expected economic data drove Treasury yields higher, weighing on heavyweight technology stocks.
Data showed the US economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter, driven by robust consumer spending. Early estimates showed gross domestic product increased at a 4.3% annualised rate last quarter, much above economists' forecast for a rise at a 3.3% pace, according to a Reuters poll.
Dollar pared losses, while the 10-year US Treasury yield rose to a near one-week high of 4.18%.
Tech heavyweights, including Nvidia, Alphabet and Micron Technology, fell less than a per cent.
"It's important to note that this is Q3. We're in Q4 right now, and we're still looking backwards at the first release ... (though) it looks pretty good altogether," said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial.
Traders continued to expect at least two 25-basis-point interest rate cuts next year, according to LSEG data, while assigning a 15% chance of the first reduction coming as early as January, down from 18% before the data.
Consumer confidence data for December is due later in the day.
By 8:49 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis were down 12.5 points, or 0.18%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis dropped 60.75 points, or 0.24%, while Dow E-minis fell 88 points, or 0.18%.
All three main indexes were set for their third straight yearly gain. The S&P 500 and the Dow were also on track to rise for the eighth consecutive month.
A rebound in technology stocks and a cooler-than-expected November inflation report have fueled US stocks in the past three sessions, bringing the benchmark S&P 500 within 0.5% of its December 11 record close.
"(The AI trade) is still very volatile. It is absolutely touch and go, and I feel like that's going to be a theme that really is going to carry forward throughout next year," said Malek.
Recent gains in US stocks have spurred hopes of a "Santa Claus rally", a seasonal phenomenon in which the S&P 500 posts gains in the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days in January, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.
This year, that period starts on Wednesday and runs through January 5.
The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, inched up from a one-year low touched earlier in the session.
Despite the recent volatility, communication services and information technology, which houses tech giants, including Nvidia and Alphabet, are on pace to become the best-performing S&P 500 sectors this year.
Trading volumes were light and were likely to thin out further as the holiday approaches. US stock markets will close at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Wednesday and remain shut on Thursday for Christmas.
The US-listed shares of precious metal miners extended their recent gains in premarket trading, after gold and silver prices surged to all-time highs against a weakening dollar and as geopolitical tensions buoyed safe-haven demand.
The Global X Silver Miners ETF gained 2.4% as silver topped $70 an ounce for the first time, while top gold miner Newmont was up 0.9%.
US military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls rose 2.4% after President Donald Trump announced plans for a new "Trump class" of battleships, which he said would be larger, faster and "100 times more powerful" than any previously built.