Investing.com – U.S. futures slumped on Friday as trade tensions between the U.S. and China escalated.
The S&P 500 futures was down 11 points or 0.42% to 2,776.75 as of 6:45 AM ET (10:45 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 152 points or 0.60% to 25,058.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 19 points or 0.26% to 7,292.25.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods, with a list of 800 products expected to revealed on Friday. It is unclear what goods will be impacted and when the tariffs will go into effect.
The two largest economies in the world have been in a tit-for-tat over global trade tariffs in recent months as the two struggle to reconcile their trade differences. The tariffs have increased chances of a full-blown global trade war as the European Union and Canada have voted to retaliate against U.S. metal tariffs.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) was among the top gainers in pre-market trading, rising 0.25% while Anheuser Busch Inbev (BR:ABI) NV ADR (NYSE:BUD) surged 1.88%.
Elsewhere General Electric (NYSE:GE) slumped 1.03% while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) lost 0.59% and cruise ship firm Carnival (LON:CCL) Plc ADS (NYSE:CUK) (LON:CCL) was down 2.76%.
In economic news, Michigan’s consumer expectations index is due at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT) with industrial production coming out at the same time. The New York Fed’s Empire State manufacturing index is at 08:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
In Europe stocks were mostly down. Germany’s DAX fell 28 points or 0.21% while in France the CAC 40 increased eight points or 0.16% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 64 points or 0.83%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 11 points or 0.31% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 127 points or 1.28%.
In commodities, gold futures were down 0.49% to $1,301.90 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.33% to $66.67 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.11% to 94.83.