Wall Street's main indexes were set to open lower on Thursday following gloomy forecasts from Meta and Qualcomm, while an early reading which showed the U.S. economy contracted again in the second quarter also weighed on sentiment.

Fears of runaway inflation and aggressive monetary policy tightening biting into economic growth have spooked markets, after gross domestic product fell at a 0.9% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its advance GDP estimate.

A Reuters survey of economists showed GDP growth likely rebounded at a 0.5% annualized rate last quarter.

"GDP contracting again doesn't come as a great surprise to anyone," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley, said.

"I don't know if today's data is going to change the narrative around markets remarkably, we're just not going to feel as exuberant as we did yesterday."

Two consecutive quarters of declines in growth are traditionally considered a recession, but the private research group that is the official arbiter of U.S. recessions looks at a broad range of indicators instead, including jobs and spending.

Worries of a recession hit Meta Platforms Inc shares, which fell 4.2% in premarket trading after posting its first-ever quarterly drop in revenue.

Qualcomm Inc fell 2.5% after it warned that difficult economic conditions and a slowdown in smartphone demand could hit its mainstay handset chips business.

The Nasdaq clocked its biggest daily percentage gain since April 2020 on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates as expected and comments by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell eased some investor worries about the pace of rate hikes.

The U.S. central bank's tightening cycle has hammered mega cap stocks as future cash flows, on which valuations of these companies rest, are discounted heavily when rates rise.

At 8:51 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 0.25 points, or 0.01%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 21.25 points, or 0.17%.

Merck & Co gained 1% after reporting higher-than-expected second-quarter earnings and revenue.

Ford Motor Co gained 6.5% after it reported a better-than-expected quarterly net income.