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Stocks- U.S. Futures Mixed as Facebook Data Leak, Trade War Weighs

Published 03/20/2018, 06:44 AM
Updated 03/20/2018, 06:44 AM
© Reuters.  U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Wall Street.

© Reuters. U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Wall Street.

Investing.com - U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Tuesday, as a Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) privacy leak prompted worry over increased regulation.

The S&P 500 futures inched up over half a point or 0.03% to 2,723.50 as of 6:42 AM ET (10:42 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 21 points or 0.09% to 24,670.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was down over 10 points or 0.16% to 6,903.50

All three markets closed in the red on Monday as privacy concerns caused a sell-off of technology stocks. Facebook slumped 6.8% on Monday, amid news that political research firm Cambridge Analytica collected data on 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge. It was the worst decline in three years.

U.S. lawmakers have called for more regulation of the firm while the British are investigating whether Facebook did enough to secure the data and its procedures after it found out about the data breach.

Meanwhile fresh trade war concerns resurfaced after news that U.S. President Donald Trump will unveil $60 billion of tariffs on Chinese imports by Friday.

Retail store JC Penney Company Inc Holding (NYSE:JCP) was among the biggest gainers in pre-market trading, rising 2.59% while BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE:BB) increased 3.77% after it announced it would provide security for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office phone apps. Meanwhile software firm Micro Focus International PLC ADR (NYSE:MFGP) surged 4.28%.

Elsewhere Facebook was down 0.92% while software company Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) slumped 8.85% after mixed earnings results and Barclays (LON:BARC) PLC ADR (NYSE:BCS) inched down 0.65%.

Investors are also looking ahead to Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve delivers its interest rate decision after the end of a two day meeting that begins on Tuesday. Traders are expecting an interest rate increase of a quarter point as Fed chair Jerome Powell gives his first press conference after the meeting.

In Europe stocks were mostly up. Germany’s DAX rose 10 points or 0.09% while in France the CAC 40 increased three points or 0.07% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 13 points or 0.19%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained two points or 0.07% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 21 points or 0.22%.

In commodities, gold futures inched down 0.42% to $1,312.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures surged 1.01% to $62.76 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied 0.19% to 89.64.

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