MILAN -  Wall Street’s main indexes were set to retreat from record levels on Monday while investors also awaited concrete signs of progress on a coronavirus relief bill.

Expectations of a US stimulus aid package gathered pace after weak payrolls data on Friday and following a bipartisan proposal on a US$900 million package last week that leaders on both sides appeared open to agreeing to.

Intel Corp fell 1.6 percent premarket after Bloomberg reported Apple Inc is planning a series of new Mac processors for introduction as early as 2021 that are aimed at outperforming Intel’s fastest processors.

Shares of oil majors Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Occidental Petroleum Corp dropped between 1 percent and 2.3 percent, tracking a decline in crude prices.

At 08:15 am ET, Dow E-minis were down 112 points, or 0.37 percent, S&P 500 E-minis were down 14 points, or 0.37 percent. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 5.5 points, or 0.04 percent.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 49 countries, dipped 0.2 percent by 1207 GMT while futures for the US stock benchmark S&P 500 slipped 0.3 percent.

The lack of progress in Brexit talks dented hopes that UK and EU negotiators would be able to strike a trade deal before a looming year-end deadline, depressing sentiment across markets. 

The Brexit angst sent European shares down 0.3 precent but the top casualty was sterling, which fell over 1 percent in a sentiment reversal from Friday when the British currency rose to 19-month high against the dollar.

Brexit tensions were also felt across bond markets, while other risk-related assets also came under pressure.

Other potentially market moving events were also on the radar, starting with a EU summit from Thursday to break an impasse over a 1.8 trillion-euro coronavirus aid package, as well as the last ECB policy meeting of the year on the same day.

The pound hit a six-week lows versus the euro, and was last down 1.2 percent at 0.9131 after the Sun newspaper reported on Monday that Johnson was ready to pull out of Brexit talks “within hours” unless the EU changes its demands.

Against the dollar, it dropped 1.2 percent to US$1.3265, while implied sterling volatility gauges for overnight and one-week maturities jumped to over 17 percent and 14 percent respectively as traders braced for more swings.

“A deal can still be done but with the probabilities near 50:50 it is little wonder that option demand seems biased towards downside strikes,” said Jeremy Stretch, head of G10 FX Strategy at CIBC Capital Markets.

Elsewhere in currency markets, the US dollar rose 0.2 percent to 91.01 against a basket of currencies, after hitting a 2-1/2-year low last week.

In bond markets, short-dated two-year Gilt yields reached a one-month low, while the yield on Germany’s 10-year benchmark Bund dropped to a one week low of -0.587 percent, hit by Brexit tensions and also weighed by expectations the European Central Bank would announce further stimulus later this week.

In commodities, oil prices slipped from their highest levels since March as a continued surge in coronavirus cases globally forced a series of renewed lockdowns, including strict new measures in Southern California.

US crude fell 1.2 percent to US$45.72 per barrel and Brent was down 1.1 percent to US$48.73. Brent has lost about a quarter of its value so far this year.

Gold eased, down 0.3 percent lower at US$1,830.9 per ounce, as the dollar bounced off a multi-year low.