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* Banks forecast 75 bps Fed hike on June 15

* Wall St 'fear gauge' spikes to near one-month high

* Futures down: Dow 1.73%, S&P 2.24%, Nasdaq 2.92%

June 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures tumbled on Monday as a widely watched part of the Treasury yield curve inverted on fears that big Federal Reserve rate hikes would tip the economy into recession.

If current losses hold, the S&P 500 will open more than 20% below its record closing high of Jan 3, putting the index on track to confirm a bear market for the second time since the pandemic-led rout on Wall Street in 2020.

Shares of Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc fell between 2.5% and 4.1% in premarket trading.

A hotter-than-expected inflation print on Friday pushed traders to price in a total of 175 basis point (bps) in interest rate hikes by September, with many expecting a bigger-than-estimated 75 bps rate increase on June 15.

The two-year 10-year U.S. Treasury yield curve briefly inverted for the first time since April, a move viewed by many in the market as a reliable signal that a recession could come in the next year or two.

"Although tech stocks are more sensitive to long-term yields, the heightened risk of recession is weighing on overvalued stocks," said Raffi Boyadjian, lead investment analyst at brokerage XM.

"The inversion of part of the US yield curve has only made the threat of a recession more real."

The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall Street's fear gauge, spiked to 32.54 points, its highest level since May 19.

At 07:20 a.m. ET (1120 GMT) Dow e-minis were down 544 points, or 1.73%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 87.25 points, or 2.24%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 345.25 points, or 2.92%.

The Fed's interest rate decision is due on June 14-15, with focus on the speed and scale of rate hikes that policymakers believe will be needed to quash red-hot inflation.

The central bank's latest projections through 2024 and beyond for economic growth, unemployment and inflation will also come under scrutiny.

Last week, U.S. stocks posted their biggest weekly percentage declines since January on worries over a steeper-than-expected rise in U.S. consumer prices, rising interest rates and the likelihood of a recession.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks including Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital Holdings and Coinbase Global fell over 15% as bitcoin, slumped close to 20% amid a wider selloff.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar, Anisha Sircar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)