Investing.com - U.S. futures were lower on Monday as rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China continued to weigh on investors.
The S&P 500 futures was down 16 points or 0.58% to 2,786.25 as of 6:45 AM ET (10:45 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 176 points or 0.70% to 24,933.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 50 points or 0.69% to 7,231.25.
On Friday U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on 818 different Chinese goods worth $34 billion beginning on July 6. China promptly retaliated with a 25% tariff on U.S. goods, including soybeans and automobiles, also worth $34 billion.
The two largest economies in the world have been in a tit-for-tat over global trade tariffs in recent months as the two struggle to reconcile their trade differences. The tariffs have increased chances of a full-blown global trade war as the European Union and Canada have voted to retaliate against U.S. metal tariffs.
Chinese e-commerce firm Jd.Com Inc Adr (NASDAQ:JD) was among the biggest gainers in pre-market trading, rising 8.51% after Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced it was investing $550 million in the firm.
Elsewhere, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) fell 0.41% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slumped 1.35% while General Electric (NYSE:GE) was down 0.45%. Technology stocks were also lower, with Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) dipping 0.66% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inching down 0.56% and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) decreasing 0.93%.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 162 points or 1.25% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 60 points or 1.10% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 27 points or 0.36%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 41 points or 1.17% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 70 points or 0.71%.
In commodities, gold futures were up 0.39% to $1,283.50 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.42% to $64.58 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.04% to 94.41.