Stock futures fall to start September as market reels on worries of rising rates

U.S. stock futures fell Thursday, the first day of September, as traders continued to fret over the potential for higher Federal Reserve rates.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 143 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively.

The moves came as the 2-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 3.516%, the highest level since November 2007, at one point Thursday.

Nvidia shares also contributed to the losses, falling more than 5% in premarket trading after the chipmaker said the U.S. government is restricting some sales in China.

The major averages are coming off four straight days of losses. On Wednesday, the final day of August, the Dow slid nearly 0.9%. The S&P 500 lost about 0.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell roughly 0.6%.

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The Dow closed the month down about 4.1%, while the S&P and Nasdaq recorded losses of 4.2% and 4.6%, respectively.

Investors are debating whether stocks will again challenge the June lows in September, a historically poor month for markets, after weighing recent hawkish comments from Fed officials who show no signs of easing up on interest rate hikes.

“If we retest the lows, I think it happens in September,” SoFi’s Liz Young said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” However, she added, “I think in order to do so, something would have to get materially worse than it was on June 16,” when stocks bottomed, such as earnings revisions that come in worse than investors are expecting.

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