Stock futures are mixed as investors weigh on falling yields

The technology sector has seen some relief after the recent downturn in bond yields, with the U.S. stock index futures showing a mixed start on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA fell 47 points, or 0.15%, to 30483, the S&P 500 SPX declined 5 points, or 0.13%, to 3760, and the Nasdaq Composite COMP fell 16 points, or 0.15%, to 11053.

The focus of investors is whether the U.S. economy is headed for a recession. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that a recession was a possibility even as he stuck to his message that the economy is strong enough to withstand a series of interest-rate hikes.

The notion that the Fed would be prepared to tolerate a recession if that is ultimately required to tame inflation has not been repudiated, said Krishna Guha, vice chairman of Evercore ISI.

The fact that this was kept in the background and not the foreground on Wednesday is confirmation that Powell does not want to do anything that might prematurely foreclose on the possibility of a softish landing, even at the cost of leaving the Fed short of Volcker-esque maximum forcefulness on inflation at this time. Powell will be interviewed by lawmakers in the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday.

The yield on the 10 year Treasury TMUBMUSD 10 Y has fallen closer to 3% from as high as 3.48% earlier this month because of the recent talk of the recession. Technology stocks and the BTCUSD, which rose early on Thursday, can be helped by falling yields.

The U.S. data will be released Thursday on weekly jobless claims and June preliminary purchasing managers indexes from S&P Global.