Investing.com – U.S. futures were mixed on Thursday, as trade tensions between the U.S. and European Union eased and a sharp decline in Facebook shares weighed on technology stocks.
The S&P 500 futures fell six points or 0.20% to 2,835.50 as of 6:50 AM ET (10:50 GMT) while Dow futures increased 23 points or 0.09% to 25,426.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slumped over 64 points or 0.87% to 7,404.75.
Trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU eased after a productive meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday. The two agreed to not impose car tariffs as the countries begin negotiations to cut trade barriers.
Earning season continues on Thursday, with 74 companies of the S&P 500 expected to report results today, including McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Under Armour Inc A (NYSE:UAA) and American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL).
The main focus will be on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), which reports after the closing bell.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is on track for its biggest share price drop ever, after the company warned that margins could fall due to privacy safeguard costs and slowing usage of the site. The social media site slumped 18.63% in pre-market trading.
Meanwhile Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 1.18% while PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) was down 3.47% and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) dipped 2.11%.
Elsewhere Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) rose 5.18% after it said it would drop its bid for Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) while semiconductor Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) inched up 0.69%.
In economic news, jobless claims and durable goods data comes out at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 153 points or 1.22% while in France the CAC 40 increased 24 points points or 0.44% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up one point or 0.02%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 26 points or 0.77% while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched up 50 points or 0.52%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.30% to $1,228.10 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.10% to $69.23 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.10% to 94.07.