US STOCKS-Wall St set for lower open as yields rise after GDP data

Updates with pre-opening prices

By Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan

Dec 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were poised to open lower on Tuesday after stronger-than-expected economic data drove Treasury yields higher, weighing on heavyweight technology stocks.

Data showed the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter, driven by robust consumer spending. Early estimates showed gross domestic product increased at a 4.3% annualized rate last quarter, much above economists' forecast for a rise at 3.3% pace, according to Reuters poll.

Dollar pared losses, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield US10YT=RR rose to near one-week high of 4.18%. FRX/ US/

Tech heavyweights, including Nvidia NVDA.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O and Micron Technology MU.O, fell less than a percent.

"It's important to note that this is Q3. We're in Q4 right now and we're still looking backwards at the first release ... (though) it looks pretty good altogether," said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial.

Traders continued to expect at least two 25-basis-point interest rate cuts next year, according to LSEG data, while assigning a 15% chance of the first reduction coming as early as January, down from 18% before the data.

Consumer confidence data for December is due later in the day.

By 8:49 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 12.5 points, or 0.18%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 dropped 60.75 points, or 0.24%, while Dow E-minis YMcv1 fell 88 points, or 0.18%.

All three main indexes were set for their third straight yearly gain. The S&P 500 .SPX and the Dow .DJI were also on track to rise for the eighth consecutive month.

A rebound in technology stocks and a cooler-than-expected November inflation report have fueled U.S. stocks in the past three sessions, bringing the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX within the 0.5% of its December 11 record close.

"(The AI trade) is still very volatile. It is absolutely touch and go and I feel like that's going to be a theme that really is going to carry forward throughout next year," said Malek.

Recent gains in U.S. stocks have spurred hopes of a "Santa Claus rally", a seasonal phenomenon in which the S&P 500 posts gains in the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days in January, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.

This year, that period starts on Wednesday and runs through January 5.

The CBOE Volatility index .VIX, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, inched up from a one-year low touched earlier in the session.

Despite the recent volatility, communication services .SPLRCL and information technology .SPLRCT, which houses tech giants, including Nvidia NVDA.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O, are on pace to become the best performing S&P 500 sectors this year.

Trading volumes were light and were likely to thin out further as the holiday approaches. U.S. stock markets will close at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Wednesday and remain shut on Thursday for Christmas.

U.S.-listed shares of precious metal miners extended their recent gains in premarket trading, after gold XAU= and silver XAG= prices surged to all-time highs against a weakening dollar and as geopolitical tensions buoyed safe-haven demand.

The Global X Silver Miners ETF SIL.P gained 2.4% as silver topped $70 an ounce for the first time, while top gold miner Newmont NEM.N was up 0.9%.

U.S. military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls HII.N rose 2.4% after President Donald Trump announced plans for a new "Trump class" of battleships, which he said would be larger, faster and "100 times more powerful" than any previously built.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

((sruthi.shankar@thomsonreuters.com))