By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
(Reuters) - The S&P 500 was set to open lower on Tuesday as excitement over signs of a first successful late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial faded, while investors continued to pull money out of the big tech companies that have benefitted most from the pandemic.
Technology-focused stocks, which have benefited from this year's work-from-home shift and powered Wall Street to new heights, were the odd ones out in a broad rally on Monday, and futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were again down 1.5% in early trade.
Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell between 1.8% and 2.3% as investors rotated into sectors that are expected to benefit from a full reopening of the economy such as travel, energy and financials, although the latter moves were muted compared to the previous day.
"The rotation could be different this time because.. it is predicated on the fact that we have evidence to say things will get better," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.
The main U.S. indexes hit new peaks on Monday as data from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)'s late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial spurred bets of a swift economic recovery next year. Democrat Joe Biden's projected victory in the U.S. presidential election also added to the market cheer.
Biden hailed the progress on the vaccine, but urged caution saying it would be "many more months" before widespread vaccination is available. Meanwhile, daily new U.S. cases topped 100,000 for the sixth straight day.
U.S. regulators on Monday also authorized emergency use of the first experimental antibody drug for COVID-19 developed by Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) & Co, pushing its shares up by 3.4%.
At 08:23 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 0.7%, led by a 4% jump for Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) after its asthma drug, being developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, met the main goal of a late-stage study.
S&P 500 E-minis were down 0.14%.
Shares of big U.S. banks, which are sensitive to the broader economic outlook, edged higher while cruise line operators and airlines battered by travel restrictions gained between 1% and 4.3%.
One big set-piece on Tuesday will by an Apple event, expected to unveil new Mac computers using its own in-house processor chips.