Investing.com – U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Thursday, as investor concern over a possible trade war resurfaced after news that U.S. President Donald Trump is imposing tariffs on Chinese imports.
The S&P 500 futures was down 19 points or 0.71% to 2,699.0 as of 6:43 AM ET (10:43 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 176 points or 0.71% to 24,551.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell over 79 points or 1.15% to 6,804.50.
Trump is expected to announce tariffs targeting $60 billion in Chinese imports aimed at curbing theft of U.S. technology, rising fears of a global trade war. He is set to sign an order "targeting China's economic aggression" at 12:30PM ET (16:30 GMT), which will be imposed under Section 301 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act.
China is already preparing to retaliate with tariffs focused on U.S. exports of soybeans, sorghum and live hogs.
Investors were also digesting the Federal Reserve interest rate hike of 25 basis points on Wednesday, which was expected. Hawkish tones from Fed Chair Jerome Powell left markets in the red on Wednesday, with three more rate hikes expected this year.
Technology stocks slumped in pre-market trading, as news of a third-party company using data mined from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) to target political ads continued to rock the industry. Facebook was down 1.73% while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dipped 0.65% and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) fell 1.68%.
Elsewhere Monsanto (NYSE:MON) rose 0.40% while clothing retailer JC Penney Company Inc Holding (NYSE:JCP) gained 2.62%.
In economic news, jobless claims is expected at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT) followed by the U.S. flash composite purchasing managers’ index at 9:45 AM ET (13:45 GMT) and the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey at 11:00 AM ET (15:00 GMT).
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 118 points or 0.96% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 50 points or 0.97% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 39 points or 0.56%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 33 points or 0.98% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 92 points or 0.96%.
In commodities, gold futures were up 0.54% to $1,328.60 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.61% to $64.77 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.01% to 89.29.