Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Wednesday, as China announced a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of American goods.
The S&P 500 futures was down 46 points or 1.76% to 2,567.25 as of 6:44 AM ET (10:44 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 542 points or 2.26% to 23,442.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 132 and a half points or 2.05% to 6,336.75.
The latest round of tariffs has prompted investor concern over a brewing trade war between China and the U.S. and increased tensions between the two biggest economies in the world.
On Wednesday China hit back at the U.S.’s proposed tariffs on high-tech and industrial Chinese products by targeting an additional 106 of U.S. goods, including soybeans, automobiles and aircraft. Over the weekend China slapped tariffs on 128 different U.S. products in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports announced in early March.
Meanwhile technology stocks remain under pressure, as U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that online retail giant Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) should pay more taxes and was causing the U.S. Postal Service to lose “billions of dollars.”
Amazon.com was down 2.88% in pre-market trading while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares fell 2.92% after activist shareholders called for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to step down amid a data scandal. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slumped 4.78% while Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) dipped 3.54% and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) decreased 4.28%.
Meanwhile pharmaceutical firm Shire plc (NASDAQ:SHPG) inched up 0.11% and Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX) jumped 1.20%.
A flurry of economic data is expected this morning. The ADP nonfarm employment change for March comes out at 8:15 AM ET (12:15 GMT) while the Markit Composite PMI data is released at 9:45 AM ET (13:45 GMT) and durable goods is expected at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT), along with the ISM non-manufacturing report.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 193 points or 1.61% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 51 points or 1.01% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 52 points or 0.75%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 48 points or 1.45% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 119 points or 1.25%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.74% to $1,347.20 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 1.89% to $62.31 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, decreased 0.10% to 89.76.