US STOCKS-Futures hit as DOJ aims antitrust probe at tech

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* Futures down: Dow 0.22%, S&P 0.27%, Nasdaq 0.54%

By Amy Caren Daniel
July 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures dropped on
Wednesday, pressured by a fall in big tech companies after the
announcement of a broad antitrust investigation by the U.S.
Justice Department into the sector.
With second quarter earnings heating up, the day's
centerpiece should be results for industrial bellwethers
including Caterpillar and Boeing.
While the Justice Department did not identify specific
companies, the terms of the review pointed to Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Facebook Inc FB.O . The
latter also reports later on Wednesday and is expected to be the
subject of another regulatory fine this week. Shares in the all three companies - among Wall Street's most
highly valued by market cap - fell between 0.8% and 1.3%.

By 6:37 a.m. ET, initial futures prices were pointing to a
roughly quarter point fall for the Dow Jones Industrial 1YMcv1
and S&P 500 EScv1 , while the tech-heavy Nasdaq NQcv1 was on
course to open half a percent lower.
Shares in planemaker Boeing Co BA.N were down 0.6% as
markets awaited a fuller update on the impact of the worldwide
grounding of its lucrative 737 MAX passenger jets after two
deadly crashes. The company has already said it would take a
roughly $5 billion charge for the affair this quarter.
Heavy equipment marker Caterpillar CAT.N was also set to
report results before the bell.
The second quarter earnings season is off to a strong start,
with nearly 80% of the 104 S&P 500 companies topping earnings
expectations, and overall profits are expected to rise about 1%,
according to Refinitiv, improving from a small decline estimated
previously.
While investors in general had dialled down forecasts for
this and next quarter, expectations that the Federal Reserve
will cut interest rates at its policy-setting meeting next week
have made traders more optimistic about the next year and more
willing to buy stocks.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq, having fallen back sharply in a
sell-off in May, are back trading at or around record highs.
The global outlook is still shaky. Surveys earlier on
Wednesday showed euro zone business growth was much weaker than
expected in July, hurt by a deepening contraction in
manufacturing, and suggested conditions would get worse next
month. The pick of the results from Tuesday's after-market results
releases was Texas Instruments Inc TXN.O , up 6.6% after the
chipmaker said that a global slowdown in microchip demand would
not be as long as feared. At 6.37 a.m. ET Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 59 points, or
0.22%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 8 points, or 0.27% and Nasdaq
100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 43.25 points, or 0.54%.