Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening bell on Monday, as investors attempt to shrug off concern over a trade war between the U.S. and China.
The S&P 500 futures was up 13 points or 0.51% to 2,588.25 as of 6:44 AM ET (10:44 GMT) while Dow futures increased 88 points or 0.37% to 23,640.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 39 and a half points or 0.62% to 6,432.75.
Markets were lower on Monday, as stocks have entered the correction territory, falling 10% since their peak in January. Worry over a trade war between China and the U.S. and concern over increased regulation of technology firms have weighed on stocks in recent weeks.
On Sunday China increased tariffs by 25% on 128 different U.S. products in response to trade tariffs from the U.S. The news increased trade tensions between the two biggest economies in the world and raised investor fear of a trade war.
Meanwhile technology stocks remain under pressure. Over the weekend 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.” Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is also under fire for its handling of a third party use of data while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has struggled to meet its Model 3 production goals.
Amazon.com was down 0.52% in pre-market trading while Facebook shares inched up 0.14% and Tesla rose 1.31%.
Elsewhere British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) PLC ADR (NYSE:BTI) surged 3.49% while Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) gained 0.28% and Rio Tinto ADR (NYSE:RIO) was up 0.23%.
Investors will be listening in to a few Federal Reserve speakers later in the day. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is speaking at the Regional Economic Indicators Forum in Duluth, Minnesota while Fed Governor Lael Brainard will deliver remarks at New York University.
Music streaming service Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) is also pursuing an unusual direct listing in place of an Initial Public Offering (IPO), with shares expected to trade on Tuesday.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 128 points or 1.06% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 28 points or 0.55% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 21 points or 0.31%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 22 points or 0.66% while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched down 61 points or 0.64%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 033% to $1,342.40 a troy ounce while crude oil futures was up 0.41% to $63.27 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, decreased 0.06% to 89.64.