May 19, 2021: -On Tuesday, Futures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes pared gains in early trading after data showed housing starts dropped sharply last month.<\/p>

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased just 9 points after climbing around 100 points earlier. S&P 500 futures gained 0.1%. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index added 0.5%.<\/p>

On Tuesday, Housing starts tumbled 9.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.569 million, the Commerce Department said.<\/p>

Economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast starts coming down of 1.7 million units in April.<\/p>

Earlier, Futures rebounded after better-than-expected earnings from Home Depot and a rebound in tech shares.<\/p>

Home Depot shares increased 2% in early trading, set to add to their 20% gains year-to-date. The retailer reports the earnings of $3.86 a share for the previous quarter, more than the $3.08 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Net sales increased 32.7%, higher than the expectations.<\/p>

Walmart shares got a profit of 1% in premarket trading after the reports of strong grocery sales and e-commerce growth for the quarter.<\/p>

Major tech stocks increased in the premarket. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft were also up in premarket trading.<\/p>

On Monday, lingering weakness in technology stocks led the major indexes lower.<\/p>

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 54.34 points, to 34,327.79. The S&P 500 lost 0.3% to 4,163.29 as the tech sector pulled back 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite decreased 0.4% to 13,379.05.<\/p>

Big Tech stocks started decreasing this week, with Apple and Netflix each down 0.9%. Microsoft shed 1.2%,\u00a0 Tesla dropped over 2% as famed investor Michael Burry revealed a significant short position on the electric carmaker.<\/p>

Growth-heavy stocks have remained under pressure in recent sessions as investors fret over whether a pop in inflation will entrench or blow over as the Federal Reserve expects.<\/p>

Inflation over the Fed’s 2% target for a sustained period could prompt the central bank to tighten the monetary policy and dampen stocks that outperform the market when interest rates are lower.<\/p>

\u201cSurging inflation data intensified the rift between secular growth stocks, which depend on lower-for-longer interest rates, and value-based investments, which need a steepening yield curve,\u201d wrote Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.<\/p>

“Although markets anticipated a step-change in the data due to economic reopening, the magnitude of the surprises has been outsized, driving equity volatility up and market indexes down from all-time highs,” she said.<\/p>

Investors blame that angst for the S&P 500\u2032s dismal performance in the last week, which gained the broad market index fall 4% through midweek amid heightened inflation fears. The general equity benchmark eventually rebounded and ended the week down 1.4%.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t