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Gold, silver stocks extend rally as bullion hits all-time

high

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Huntington Ingalls gains after Trump unveils 'Trump-class'

battleships

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Futures down: Dow 0.18%, S&P 500 0.18%, Nasdaq 0.24%

(Updates with pre-opening prices)

By Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan

Dec 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were poised to

open lower on Tuesday after stronger-than-expected economic data

drove Treasury yields higher, weighing on heavyweight technology

stocks.

Data showed the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in

the third quarter, driven by robust consumer ‌spending. Early

estimates showed gross domestic product increased at a 4.3%

annualized rate last quarter, much above economists' forecast

for a rise at 3.3% pace, according to Reuters poll.

Dollar ​pared losses, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield

rose to near one-week high of 4.18%.

Tech heavyweights, including Nvidia ( NVDA ), Alphabet

and Micron ‍Technology, fell less than a

percent.

"It's important to note that this is Q3. We're in ⁠Q4 right

now and we're still ⁠looking backwards at the first release ...

(though) it looks pretty good altogether," said Mark Malek,

chief investment officer at Siebert Financial.

Traders continued to expect at least two ‌25-basis-point

interest rate cuts next year, according to LSEG data, while

assigning a ​15% chance of the first reduction coming as early as

January, down from 18% before the data.

Consumer confidence data for December is due later in the

day.

By 8:49 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis were ⁠down 12.5

points, or 0.18%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis dropped 60.75

points, ‍or 0.24%, while ​Dow E-minis fell 88 points, or

0.18%.

All three main indexes were set for their third straight

yearly gain. The S&P 500 and the Dow were also on

track to rise for the eighth consecutive month.

A rebound in technology ‍stocks and a cooler-than-expected

November inflation report have fueled U.S. stocks in the past

three sessions, bringing the benchmark S&P 500 within the

0.5% of its December 11 record close.

"(The AI trade) is still very volatile. It is absolutely

touch and go and I feel like that's going to be a theme that

really is going to carry forward throughout next year," said

Malek.

Recent gains in U.S. stocks have spurred hopes of a "Santa

Claus rally", a seasonal phenomenon in which the S&P 500 posts

gains in ​the last ‍five trading days of the year and the first

two trading days in January, according to the Stock Trader's

Almanac.

This year, that period starts on Wednesday and runs through

January 5.

The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall

Street's ​fear gauge, inched up from a one-year low touched

earlier in the session.

Despite the recent volatility, communication services

and information technology, which houses

tech giants, including Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Alphabet,

are on pace to become the best performing S&P 500 sectors this

year.

Trading volumes were light and were likely to thin out

further as the holiday approaches. U.S. stock markets will close

at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Wednesday and remain shut on Thursday

for Christmas.

U.S.-listed shares of precious metal miners extended their

recent gains in premarket trading, after gold and silver

prices surged to all-time highs against a ​weakening

dollar and as geopolitical tensions buoyed safe-haven demand.

The Global X Silver Miners ETF gained 2.4% as silver

topped $70 an ounce for the first time, while top gold miner

Newmont ( NEM ) was up 0.9%.

U.S. military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls rose

2.4% after President Donald Trump announced plans for a new

"Trump class" of battleships, which he ‍said would be larger,

faster and "100 times more powerful" than any previously built.