FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Purvi Agarwal and Sukriti Gupta

(Reuters) -Wall Street looked set for a lower open on Monday after rallying to record highs in the previous session, while uncertainty around President Donald Trump's visa policies also dimmed sentiment.

Markets took a pause after a tech-driven rally on Friday pushed the three indexes to close at record highs for the second consecutive session, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq logging their third consecutive week of gains.

U.S. technology companies slipped in premarket trading after the Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B working visas, prompting some big tech companies and banks to warn employees to stay in the U.S. or quickly return.

Megacaps such as Microsoft and Amazon.com edged lower, as U.S. tech companies are heavily reliant on skilled workers from India and China.

Cognizant Technology Solutions, JPMorgan and Intel, which rank among the biggest sponsors of H-1B visas, were down between 0.5% and 1.6%.

"The fees and the recent visa-related news flow point to an environment that's getting incrementally stringent and could hurt the sentiment," Tien-tsin Huang, J.P. Morgan equity analyst, said in a note.

"Companies and clients will take actions to minimize the financial impact."

At 8:19 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 174 points, or 0.37%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 23 points, or 0.34% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 96.25 points, or 0.39%.

The Federal Reserve's expected quarter-point reduction to interest rates last week and indications of more at upcoming meetings added to Wall Street's recent rally, that was partly fueled by a revived enthusiasm around AI-linked stock trading.

Futures linked to the Russell 2000 index were down 0.2% after the index hit an intraday record high on Friday.

Wall Street's three main indexes are in positive territory so far in September - a month deemed historically bad for U.S. equities. The benchmark S&P 500 has shed 1.4% on average in the month since 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG.

A slew of economic data is scheduled for release this week, including that for personal consumption expenditure - the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation - and gross domestic product.

Markets will also parse through comments from a host of policymakers on Monday, including newly appointed Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran.

Kenvue fell 4.6% ahead of the Trump administration's announcement about its autism findings. A report earlier this month said that the administration planned to announce that Kenvue's pain medication Tylenol by pregnant women is potentially linked to autism.

Pfizer said it would acquire weight-loss drug developer Metsera in a deal valued up to $7.3 billion. Shares of Pfizer rose 1.7%, while Metsera soared 60%.

Compass fell 11.2% after the brokerage firm entered an agreement to acquire rival Anywhere Real Estate in an all-stock deal valued at $4.2 billion. Anywhere's shares were up over 52%.

Fox Corp gained 5% after a report said the media company's top boss was eyeing a stake in TikTok.

(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal, Sukriti Gupta and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)