Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Friday, as worry over a potential trade war between the U.S. and China kept markets on edge.
The S&P 500 futures was down 15 points or 0.57% to 2,646.50 as of 6:44 AM ET (10:44 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 162 points or 0.66% to 24,306.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 39 points or 0.59% to 6,561.25.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on China, prompting investor worry of a trade war between the two biggest countries in the world.
On Thursday Trump said he was asking the United States Trade Representative to consider $100 billion more in tariffs as a retaliation against China.
China’s state media said Beijing will defend its interests “against new U.S. actions.” The country has already announced two sets of tariffs this week in a tit-for-tat against technology, steel and aluminium tariffs imposed by Trump but neither side has announced an effective data for the tariffs. Chinese government officials are expected to speak at 8:00 AM ET (12:00 GMT) despite it being a holiday there.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was down 0.84% in pre-market trading, while Teslas slumped 2.53% and semiconductor Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) dipped 3.19%. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) fell 0.89% while Boeing (NYSE:BA) decreased 2.26%.
Elsewhere Nokia (HE:NOKIA) corp inched up 0.09% while Vodafone (LON:VOD) rose 0.10% and Micro Focus International PLC ADR (NYSE:MFGP) gained 0.26%.
In economic news, investors are looking ahead to the latest U.S. employment figures at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT) and a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in Chicago at 1:30 PM ET (17:30 GMT).
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 58 points or 0.48% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 23 points or 0.45% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 11 points or 0.15%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 24 points or 0.73% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 44 points or 0.46%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.09% to $1,327.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.42% to $62.27 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, dipped 0.01% to 90.11.