Investing.com – U.S. Futures were much lower on Wednesday after Gary Cohn resigned as the top economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, increasing fears that Trump will impose steep metal tariffs.
The S&P 500 futures fell 26 points or 0.95% to 2,698.0 as of 6:40 AM ET (11:40 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 302 points or 1.22% to 24,550.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was down 59 points or 0.85% to 6,848.75
Markets have been on edge since last week when U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would impose 25% import tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum. Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) executive, was largely against the tariffs. Investors worry that his resignation could mean Trump will pass the tariffs and create a trade war.
Trump is expected to finalize the tariffs later in the week and choose a National Economic Council Director to replace Cohen in the next few weeks.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was among the lowest performers in pre-market trading, falling 2.26% while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 1.12% and General Electric (NYSE:GE) lost 1.43%. Meanwhile Park Hotels & Resorts Inc (NYSE:PK) was down 2.07% after it increased its price of a secondary offering of common stock.
Elsewhere United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X)n rose 2.09% while National Grid (LON:NG) PLC ADR (NYSE:NGG) increased 1.64% and software designer Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) jumped 7.20% after its earnings came in better than expected.
In economic news, ADP nonfarm payrolls comes out at 8:15 AM ET (13:15 GMT) while consumer credit is released at 3:00 PM ET (20:00 GMT). Central bankers are also expected to speak later in the day, with Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic in Florida and New York Fed President William Dudley in Puerto Rico.
On the earnings front, Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), Costco (NASDAQ:COST) and Abercrombie & Fitch Company (NYSE:ANF) are some of the firms expected to release their earnings results on Wednesday.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 27 points or 0.22% while in France the CAC 40 decreased two points or 0.05% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down five points or 0.07%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 11 points or 0.33% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 26 points or 0.28%.
In commodities, gold futures were down 0.20% to $1,332.50 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.65% to $62.19 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.09% to 89.48.