Nasdaq futures drive losses as megacap tech, chip stocks sell off
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Chip stocks fall on China trade worries, tech rout
J&J down after cutting annual profit forecast
Lilly slumps as rival Roche reports early data for obesity pill
Spirit Airlines shares slip after lowered Q2 forecast
Futures down: Dow 0.21%, S&P 500 0.81%, Nasdaq 1.28%
Updated at 7:02 a.m. ET/1102 GMT
By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Ankika Biswas
July 17 (Reuters) - Nasdaq futures shed over 1% on Wednesday, leading losses among the main U.S. indexes as megacap chip and tech stocks tumbled in a broad market decline amid a deluge of corporate results and the prospect of tougher trade restrictions on Chinese chips.
Megacaps such as Apple AAPL.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and Meta Platforms <META.O> lost between 1% and 2% before the opening bell.
Shares of semiconductor companies also fell, with AI-chip favorite Nvidia NVDA.O sliding 3.5% and ASML's U.S.-listing ASML.O dropping 7.5% after a report the Biden Administration was considering severetrade restrictions as part of a crackdown on Chinese chips.
Elsewhere, U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing TSM.N shed 4.3% after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Taiwan should pay the U.S. for its defense.
Marvell Technology MRVL.O, Broadcom AVGO.O, Qualcomm QCOM.O, Micron Technology MU.O, Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O and Arm Holdings ARM.O were also down between 2.7% and 4%.
Wall Street's "fear gauge" .VIX briefly touched a more than six-week high in early trading, signaling investor unease.
Trade Nation senior market analyst David Morrison cited profit-taking among the likely causes for Wednesday's dip in futures.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI and the S&P 500 .SPX had closed at all-time highs on Tuesday.
After a blistering rally in tech companies since the last leg of 2023, investors are now moving to hitherto underperforming areas of the market on growing bets that the Federal Reserve is nearing the start of interest-rate cuts.
Futures tracking the Russell 2000 RTYcv1 fell 0.3% afterthe small-cap index.RUT rallied nearly 12% overthe last five sessions.
"It could be the rally has been running on fumes recently... what we're seeing now is a generalized pullback, which is totally consistent with consolidation and profit-taking after record highs in the major indices," Morrison said.
Firmer bets on a Fed rate cut in September as well as rising expectations that former President Donald Trump will be back in the White House in November following theattempt on his life havehelped lift stocks over the past few sessions.
Investors will focus on comments from Fed officials Thomas Barkin and Christopher Waller later in the day for clues on how policymakers have assessed recent inflation, employment and retail sales data.
On the earnings front, J&J JNJ.N slipped 0.4%, but pared losses after the drug and device maker lowered itsannual earnings outlook.
In the day's economic data, housing starts and industrial production data for June are due before market open.
At 7:02 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 86 points, or 0.21%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 46.5 points, or 0.81%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 264 points, or 1.28%.
Among others, U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly LLY.N fell2.8% after Swiss rival Roche's ROG.S promising early-stage data from anexperimental obesity pill, which it acquired as part of its buyout of Carmot Therapeutics.
Trucking firm JB Hunt Transport Services JBHT.O fell 3% following a 24% drop in second-quarter profit.
Spirit Airlines SAVE.N slumped 6.6% after lowering its second-quarter revenue outlook, citing lower-than-expected non-ticket revenue.
Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
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