US equity futures point to a weaker open. Asian markets traded sharply lower, while European equity futures also signaled early losses. Big tech remains the market’s key pressure point after broad declines Thursday, with Tesla, Nvidia and Google leading weakness as AI-linked momentum unwound. Furthermore, labor-market softening stayed in focus after reports that Verizon plans to cut about 15K jobs, while the extended data vacuum drew attention given that after next week’s likely September payroll release, major macro data are not expected again until early December. Macro uncertainty tightened after hawkish Fed commentary pushed December rate-cut odds below 50% and lifted Treasury yields. In addition, China’s latest activity and credit data showed industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment weakening to the slowest pace in over a year, reinforcing global risk-off sentiment.

Companies Mentioned: Nvidia, Paramount, Comcast, Netflix, Warner Bros, Apple, OpenAI