Tech-Heavy Nasdaq Poised to Extend Slide

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U.S. stock-index futures signaled more losses for Wall Street Monday, with Nasdaq 100 futures facing the sharpest decline amid a move away from growth stocks.

Today's Markets

As of 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 57 points, or 0.35%, to 16299, S&P 500 futures dipped 8.3 points, or 0.46%, to 1851 and Nasdaq 100 futures slumped 29.5 points, or 0.83%, to 3508.

The Nasdaq plummeted 2.6% on Friday in its worst day since early February. The tech-heavy index also posted its worst two-week decline since 2012. The move has come on the back of an intense selloff in once high-flying technology and biotechnology names. Stocks that took a beating on Friday included Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG).

The sudden shift comes as traders move money from growth stocks into more defensive dividend-paying shares, such as utilities. Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said concerns that the economy is still sluggish, yet still growing quickly enough for the Federal Reserve to continue tapering its bond-buying program, was at least partly to blame. This comes at a time when analysts are increasingly discussing a potential bond-purchasing program from the European Central Bank to combat very light inflation in the eurozone.

The U.S. economic calendar is fairly light on the day, with a report from the Federal Reserve on consumers' use of credit due out in the afternoon.

A report out of Europe showing German industrial production slowed to a month-over-month pace of 0.4% in February from 0.7% in January did little to ease traders' nerves.

In corporate news, earnings season kicks off later this week, with companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Alcoa (NYSE:AA) set to report. Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) also hiked its quarterly dividend by 7%.

Elsewhere, U.S. crude oil futures fell 43 cents, or 0.43%, to $100.71 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline dipped 0.61% to $2.913 a gallon. Gold slipped $3.90, or 0.3%, to $1,300 a troy ounce.