Stocks edge lower after choppy week; Boeing falls

U.S. stock futures and Treasuries posted small moves on Monday as traders recalibrated their bets in the wake of last week’s selloff. Brent crude fell below $77 a barrel.

Contracts on the S&P 500 inched down 0.1% and European stocks pared an earlier retreat.

Boeing slumped as much as 9.8% in the U.S. premarket after a fuselage section on a 737 Max 9 aircraft ejected during a flight over the weekend.

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., which installed the panel, dropped 21%.

Oil slid almost 3% after Saudi Arabia cut official selling prices for all regions amid persistent weakness in the market.

Markets are looking for direction after mixed U.S. economic data on Friday capped a week that saw global equities sink the most since October on speculation the Federal Reserve was in no rush to reduce interest rates.

Further catalysts may come from the U.S. inflation print due Thursday and the earnings season kicking off Friday with U.S. financial names including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc.

“Multiples are already priced at rich levels,” BNP Paribas analysts including Calvin Tse and Sam Lynton-Brown wrote in a note.

“With the probability of a disappointment in full-year earnings elevated, we believe that downside risks outweigh upside ones.”

According to Bloomberg’s latest Markets Live Pulse survey, the consensus estimate of sell-side analysts is that S&P 500 earnings this year will reach historic levels, but those forecasts are too high.

The poll shows an economic slowdown is the biggest risk for the bottom lines this year.

In Europe, German factory orders rose much less than anticipated in November, a discouraging sign for Europe’s largest economy, data showed on Monday.

Seizing yields

The yield on U.S. Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.06%.

Some traders are unfazed by the recent pullback, seeing it as a chance to seize on elevated yields before the Federal Reserve starts driving down rates.

The dynamic was on display Friday, when bond prices dipped after the Labor Department reported that job growth unexpectedly accelerated last month.

But the selloff was curtailed because buyers swooped in as 10-year Treasury yields neared 4.1%, the highest since mid-December.

Elsewhere, Brent halted last week’s rally after the Saudi price cuts.

The reductions underscored a worsening global outlook amid strong global supply, including from the U.S., and outweighed concern over Red Sea tensions and supply disruptions in Libya.

In Asia, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index closed down 2.3%, led by a selloff in technology shares.

Sentiment remains quite negative in China, Nomura Group analysts including Chetan Seth in Singapore wrote in a client note.

“There have been more signs of support for the economy, but equity investors still do not appear convinced,” they said.