Interest Rate Worries Weaken Exchange-Traded Funds, Equity Futures Premarket Tuesday

The broad market exchange-traded fund SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and actively traded Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) were each down nearly 0.4% in Tuesday's premarket activity, weighed down by worries over a prolonged monetary policy tightening.

US stock futures were also slightly lower, with S&P 500 Index futures down 0.3% before the start of trading.

July's Case-Shiller Home Price Index and Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index will be published at 9 am ET, followed by the Conference Board's consumer confidence report for September, August's new home sales, and September's Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index at 10 am ET.

In the afternoon, the money supply report for August posts at 1 pm ET, and Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman speaks at 1:30 pm ET.

In premarket action, bitcoin was 0.2% lower, and the cryptocurrency fund ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) declined by 0.5%.

Power Play: Consumer

Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP) was off 0.2%, and the Vanguard Consumer Staples Fund (VDC) and iShares US Consumer Staples ETF (IYK) were each also inactive.

The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) was down 0.7%, the VanEck Retail ETF (RTH) was inactive, and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) was 0.8% lower.

United Natural Foods (UNFI) fell nearly 17% after reporting a fiscal Q4 adjusted loss of $0.25 per diluted share, swinging from adjusted EPS of $1.27 a year earlier. Net sales for the quarter ended July 29 were $7.42 billion, up from $7.27 billion a year earlier.

Winners and Losers:

Healthcare

The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) was off 0.2%, and the Vanguard Health Care Index Fund (VHT) was flat. The iShares US Healthcare ETF (IYH) was inactive, and the iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) was down by 0.2%.

Novartis (NVS) gained 0.1% after its Sandoz unit said the European Commission has approved Tyruko for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.

Financials

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) was 0.4% lower, while Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) declined by 1.2%, and bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) increased 1.1%.

Industrial

Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLI) was down 0.4%, and the Vanguard Industrials Index Fund (VIS) and iShares US Industrials ETF (IYJ) were each also inactive.

Ault Alliance (AULT) rose 3.4% after it said its Eco Pack Technologies unit has agreed to acquire an 80% stake in Eco Pack Technologies.

Technology

Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) was 0.3% lower, and the iShares US Technology ETF (IYW) and iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF (IGM) were each also inactive.

Among semiconductor ETFs, SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) was nearly 0.1% lower, and the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) decreased 0.7%.

Infosys (INFY) fell 0.6% after it said it is working with Microsoft (MSFT), which was down by 0.4%, to offer integrated technologies to companies for the adoption of generative artificial intelligence.

Energy

The iShares US Energy ETF (IYE) was inactive, and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) was down by 0.5%.

Pineapple Energy (PEGY) rose 8.1% after it said late Monday its SUNation Energy unit expanded into Tampa and Central Florida.

Commodities

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down by almost 1%, while natural gas was decreased 2.8%. United States Oil Fund (USO) was 1.1% lower, and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) fell 2.8%.

Gold futures for December were down nearly 0.3% to $1,931.10 an ounce on the Comex, and silver futures decreased 0.5% to $23.27 an ounce; SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) were down 0.2%, while the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) was lower by 0.5%.