U.S. futures slip as Fed rally eases; Dow Jones down 0.16%

Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Monday, as the global rally caused by the Federal Reserve's recent announcement of a third round of quantitative easing began to fade, while concerns over Spain's financial woes resurfaced.

Ahead of the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.16% fall, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.17% decline, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.17% loss.

Stocks rallied after the Fed announced last week that it would buy USD40 billion of mortgage-backed securities every month and would keep buying them until the job market improves.

The bank also said it expects to keep short-term interest rates at record low levels through at least mid-2015, six months longer than previously anticipated.

Meanwhile, investors remained cautious as Spain's government faced protests over the weekend against public spending cuts, even as Madrid told its European partners that its next steps to overhaul the economy would avoid further cuts in public spending.

Automakers were expected to be active, after the U.S. Treasury Department said it is not willing to sell the government's stake in General Motors, seeing as a sale now would mean huge investment losses, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Separately, the Canadian Auto Workers chose Ford Motor as the lead company for contract talks, one day before a strike deadline at the Detroit Three automakers, saying the union believes it has the best chance of reaching a deal with Ford and averting a damaging work stoppage.

Financial stocks were also likely to be in focus, as JPMorgan's compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws was reportedly being reviewed by a banking regulator, making the largest U.S. bank the latest target of a wide investigation on how banks prevent transactions involving drug money and sanctioned countries.

Elsewhere, General Electric was slated to move, amid reports it has hired Morgan Stanley to review its 33% stake in Thailand's Bank of Ayudhya, which could potentially lead to a sale by the U.S. conglomerate of its near USD2.2 billion holding.

Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were lower. The EURO STOXX 50 dropped 0.54%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.61%, Germany's DAX fell 0.20%, while Britain's FTSE 100 slumped 0.33%.

During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.14%, while markets in Japan were closed for a national holiday.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish an index of manufacturing activity in the New York area.