U.S. stock futures pointed to a drop at the open Monday, with Facebook Inc. shares leading the way lower as the social-media giant drew considerable flak for how it had managed users’ data.
The Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy decision also could be helping to peel away investors from equities.
What are the main benchmarks doing?
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMM8, -0.47% fell by 136 points, or 0.5%, to 24,829, while S&P 500 futures ESM8, -0.48% shed 16.15 points, or 0.6%, to 2,739.75. Futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 NQM8, -2.27% lost 98.25 points, or 1.4%, to 6,945.75.
Last week, the Dow DJIA, +0.29% , S&P 500 SPX, +0.17% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.00% all declined by 1% or more, though each gauge erased part of its weekly loss by inching up Friday.
The Dow has pared its 2018 gain to 0.9%, while the S&P is up 2.9% for the year and the Nasdaq has advanced 8.4%.
What’s driving markets?
Shares in Facebook FB, +0.67% shed 3.7% in premarket trading for the biggest drop among all stocks in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100. Facebook isn’t part of the Dow industrials.
The Silicon Valley company has ignited a firestorm over how it manages third-party access to its users’ information, after saying a firm with ties to the 2016 Trump campaign improperly kept member data for years despite saying it had destroyed those records.
See: Web’s creator blasts Facebook, saying it makes his invention easy to ‘weaponize’
The Federal Reserve has the attention of markets worldwide, with an interest-rate hike expected on Wednesday following a two-day meeting of the central bank’s policy group, the Federal Open Market Committee. Higher interest rates can make riskier assets such as stocks less attractive.
Check out: The Fed is hogging the attention, but don’t forget this critical number
Investors also have been worrying this month about a potential global trade war. The trade concerns come as the Trump administration takes a hawkish stance on U.S. trade with China and moves ahead with tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.
Read: U.S. soybeans would be China’s biggest weapon in a trade war
And see: Trump’s most market-rattling trade blasts are still to come, warns Pimco
There are no Fed speeches and no top-tier U.S. economic reports expected on Monday.
What are strategists saying?
“The market is pricing in a 97.9% likelihood of a rate hike at this meeting. The big question then will be the ‘dot plot’ giving the FOMC members’ estimates of where rates will be at the end of this year and next,” said Marshall Gittler, chief strategist at ACLS Global, in a note.
“I expect that the committee will indeed revise up their forecast for rates, for next year if not for this year, and that this will boost the dollar.”
Read more: What to expect from the new Fed dot plot on interest rates
And see: It’s time for stock-market investors to refocus on the Fed
What other stocks are in focus?
Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.35% is reportedly designing and making its own display screens for the first time. The iPhone maker’s shares fell 1.1% in premarket action.
Check out: This surging stock looks like a promising bet on electric cars — and it’s not Tesla
What are other markets doing?
European stocks SXXP, -0.54% lost ground, while Asian markets finished mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei benchmark NIK, -0.90% down 0.9% as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faced mounting pressure over a land-sale scandal.
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Oil futures CLJ8, -0.29% and the ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, -0.21% fell, while gold futures GCJ8, -0.08% also dipped.