US STOCKS-Wall St set for weak open as commodity rout rattles markets

Updates with comment, prices before the opening bell

By Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit

Feb 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes looked set for a lower open on Monday, as a violent selloff in precious metals unsettled investors at the start of a week packed with corporate earnings and major economic data.

Gold dropped as much as 6% and silver tumbled 10%, as commodity exchange CME Group boosted margin requirements for the precious metals following a historic plunge on Friday. The rout rippled across markets as leveraged investors were forced to unwind positions to meet margin calls.

"There's a ripple effect (referring to metals' sell-off) in stocks, but you're seeing sort of a change in mindset in terms of where equity investors are looking for leadership," said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

U.S.-listings of gold and silver miners dropped in premarket trading. Harmony Gold HMY.N and Sibanye Stillwater SBSW.K slid 2.2% and 0.4%, respectively.

Hecla Mining HL.N and Endeavour Silver EXK.N slipped 2% and 1.6%, respectively.

The metals selloff deepened last week after U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair to replace Jerome Powell in May, a move that investors largely viewed as hawkish.

Shares of energy companies dropped as oil prices fell 5%, after Trump said Iran was "seriously talking" with Washington, signalling de-escalation and easing supply disruption concerns. Exxon Mobil XOM.N and Chevron CVX.N fell between 1.2% and 2%. O/R

At 08:25 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were down 46 points, or 0.09%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 30.75 points, or 0.43% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 182 points, or 0.72%.

The volatility VIX index .VIX climbed to 18.75, hovering near a two‑week high after last week's choppy stretch, triggered by mixed mega‑cap earnings and heightened policy uncertainty stemming from Trump's pick of Warsh.

Tech mega-caps slipped in premarket trading, with Nvidia NVDA.O and Tesla TSLA.O down 1.4% and 1.9%, respectively, while Meta META.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O lost 1% each.

Microsoft MSFT.O and Amazon AMZN.O lost 0.7% each.

Microsoft shares recorded their worst week since March 2020 on Friday after cloud revenue disappointed highlighting growing investor sensitivity to lofty capital‑spending plans and the pressure on Big Tech to justify record outlays with meaningful returns.

"You're seeing investors being more selective .. and you're seeing companies starting to warn a bit on earnings, or where investors are perhaps reassessing their expectations for growth," Baird added.

Investors now face another heavy week of tech earnings, with 128 of S&P 500 companies expected to report results, including Alphabet, Amazon and AMD AMD.O.

Disney DIS.N fell 2.3% despite posting first-quarter earnings above Wall Street expectations.

Despite bouts of selloff in January due to geopolitical tensions, all three indexes ended higher, with the S&P crossing 7,000 points for the first time. The index also hit record levels earlier in the month, as investors cheered some resilient earnings and steady demand for AI‑linked growth stories.

The U.S. entered what is expected to be a brief shutdown on Saturday after Congress failed to approve a deal to keep a wide swath of operations funded.

Markets have become increasingly reactive to labor data, and JOLTS, ADP hiring figures and non‑farm payrolls this week will be at the center of market focus along with PMI figures.

Shares of rare earth miners and critical minerals rose after Bloomberg News reported the Trump administration launched a $12 billion minerals stockpile to counter china.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

((pranav.kashyap@tr.com; +919886482111;))