Stock Futures Fall as Investors Await Fed Chair Warsh's Jackson Hole Speech

Stock futures fell on Monday, weighed by declines in tech shares, following a losing week as markets remain pressured by elevated Treasury yields.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded 136 points lower, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures lost 0.3% and 0.7% respectively. Investors await Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's keynote speech at the annual Jackson Hole symposium this week. The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond yield topped 5.3% last week, reaching levels not seen in nearly 20 years.

Treasury yields moved lower Monday, with the 10-year Treasury note yield more than 2 basis points lower at 4.7120%, and the 30-year Treasury note yield dropping more than 2 basis points to 5.2497%. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced measures last week to help stabilize the long-end of the U.S. yield curve, including sharply ramping up purchases of treasury bonds.

Yields initially fell after Bessent's intervention but soon rebounded. David Zervos, chief market strategist at Jefferies, described Bessent's decision as a "Treasury-led 'Operation Twist'." The rise in treasury yields has sharply increased the cost of servicing the federal debt, which has ballooned to a record $40 trillion. This year, interest payments will absorb 13.5% of all federal spending, up from 5.2% in 2021.

President Donald Trump has called interest rates ridiculous and artificially high, blaming the Federal Reserve for not cutting them. Higher treasury yields set the benchmark for rates on mortgage loans and other long-term lending, with fixed rates on thirty-year home loans rising from about six percent to about 6.75 percent since the start of this year.

Investors grew fearful that the U.S.-Iran war would continue longer, keeping oil prices elevated and driving inflation higher. Warsh, appointed by Donald Trump earlier this year, has signaled reluctance to spoon-feed financial markets on interest rates.