Investing.com – U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Monday, as investor worry over a trade war resurfaced after China increased tariffs up to 25% on American goods.
The S&P 500 futures was down six and a half points or 0.26% to 2,636.25 as of 6:44 AM ET (10:44 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 74 points or 0.31% to 24,073.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 39 points or 0.60% to 6,554.25.
On Sunday China increased tariffs by 25% on 128 different U.S. products including pork, wine, nuts and seamless steel pipes, in response to trade tariffs from the U.S. The news has increased trade tensions between the two biggest economies in the world and risen investor fear of a trade war.
The White House is expected to list Chinese imports that will be tariffed, which is expected to include about $50 billion to $60 billion worth of technology products.
Luxury car-maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was down 3.40% in pre-market trading after reports that a fatal car crash involving one of its Model X cars was on autopilot. Shares of the firm have already fallen 30% in the last month.
Meanwhile Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) inched down 0.19% as it continued to face criticism of a third party targeting 50 million users without their knowledge. Semiconductor Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) dipped 0.56% while American Capital (NASDAQ:ACSF) slumped 6.28% and Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR) fell 2.09%.
Elsewhere Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) rose 1.23% while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched up 0.18%.
On the data front, the manufacturing PMI is due at 9:45 AM ET (13:45 GMT) while the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing data is out at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT). Investors will also be listening to Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari who is speaking at a student town hall in Minnesota later in the day.
In Europe, stocks were closed for the Easter Monday holiday.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.61% to $1,335.40 a troy ounce while crude oil futures was up 0.38% to $65.19 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, decreased 0.20% to 89.57.