Wall St set to open subdued as chip-equipment, auto stocks drag

Sept 15 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open subdued on Friday as shares of Ford and General Motors as well as chip-equipment makers fell, though optimism over a likely pause in U.S. interest-rate hikes supported investor sentiment.

Applied Materials (AMAT.O), Lam Research (LRCX.O) and KLA Corp (KLAC.O) fell over 2% each in premarket trading after Reuters reported Taiwan’s TSMC (2330.TW), the world’s top chipmaker, had asked vendors to delay delivery of high-end chipmaking equipment, weighing on Nasdaq futures.

Automakers Ford Motor (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) shed 1.0% and 0.4%, respectively, after the United Auto Workers union launched simultaneous strikes at three factories owned by the “Detroit Three”, including Chrysler-owner Stellantis (STLAM.MI), marking the most ambitious U.S. industrial labor action in decades.

“The UAW strike is something that the market is probably presuming will be settled quickly, but if it’s not, it’s a big negative for the markets, particularly if it’s settled with a very high wage increase,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments.

SoftBank’s Arm Holdings (ARM.O) gained 1.2% before the bell after a stellar Nasdaq debut on Thursday, rekindling hopes of a turnaround in the initial public offering (IPO) market.

“The fact that the performance was good suggests the potential for more new issues, which is probably good for both the market and for the banking sector,” Meckler added.

Arm’s strong debut prompted grocery delivery app Instacart to raise the proposed price range for its IPO to target a fully diluted valuation of up to $10 billion.

Investors are also focused on Neumora Therapeutics’ (NMRA.O) debut later in the day after the SoftBank-backed firm raised $250 mln in its U.S. IPO.

Wall Street’s main indexes gained on Thursday after hotter-than-expected economic data eased worries about a recession without raising fears of a U.S. interest rate hike next week.

Traders’ bets on the Federal Reserve holding rates steady in its Sept. 20 policy meeting remained intact at 97%, while their odds for a pause in November stood at nearly 68%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Faster growth, cooler inflation and a resilient job market have set the stage for an updated batch of forecasts from Fed officials next week, likely to reflect prospects of an economic soft-landing, while keeping one more rate hike on the table.

Investors will monitor August industrial production and the University of Michigan’s preliminary reading of consumer sentiment due later in the day.

The expiry of quarterly derivatives contracts tied to stocks, index options and futures during the day are also expected to keep markets volatile.

At 8:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 12 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 4.5 points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 41.25 points, or 0.26%.

Shares of Adobe (ADBE.O) dropped 3.5% after the Photoshop software maker disclosed a commercial paper program of up to $3 billion on Sept. 8 following its third-quarter results.

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