Stock futures are flat after S&P, Nasdaq start the week in the red

U.S. stock index futures were flat during overnight trading on Monday, following a volatile session that saw the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite continue their march lower.

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat. S&P 500 futures were slightly higher, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.13%.

During regular trading the S&P dipped 0.39%. In a volatile session the benchmark index at one point gained 0.56%, while shedding about 1% at the session low.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a similar swing, although the 30-stock index eked out a 0.8% gain at the closing bell, pushed higher by Chevron and UnitedHealth.

The Nasdaq Composite, meantime, was the session’s underperformer as the carnage in tech stocks continued. The tech-heavy index finished the day 1.2% lower, and is now 28% below its intraday all-time high from Nov. 22.

“In a sense, the poor performance this year for tech and growth companies is somewhat of a payback for the impressive returns these market segments had recently enjoyed,” UBS said Monday in a note to clients.

The tailwinds of the pandemic — a jump in stay-at-home spending and low interest rates — have since turned to headwinds. Now, consumer spending is shifting and rates are rising.

“While we think that long-term interest rates have peaked for now, growth stocks are still expensive relative to value stocks,” UBS added.

Investors will also be watching key economic data out Tuesday, with retail sales numbers hitting at 8:30 a.m. ET followed by industrial production numbers later in the morning.

Inflation concerns have been a mounting headwind for stocks, with some investors worried the economy could ultimately tip into a recession.

“We see clear late-cycle indicators, and while the risk of economic growth contraction or recession has risen steadily through the first four-and-a-half months of this year, we are now beginning to cross over a probability level that makes recession a base case for the end of this year and beginning of next,” Darrell Cronk, president of Wells Fargo Investment Institute wrote in a note Monday.

The firm added that ultimately it should be a “relatively mild economic growth contraction and a short-lived one.”

While the bulk of earnings season is in the rearview mirror, a number of companies are on deck for Tuesday, including Walmart, Home Depot and JD.com.

As of Friday afternoon, of the more than 90% of the S&P 500 that’s posted quarterly results, 78% of companies have beat earnings expectations while 75% have topped revenue forecasts, according to data from Refinitiv.