Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a lower opening bell as earnings season and trade tensions continued to rattle investors.
The S&P 500 futures was down eight points or 0.31% at 2,807.25 as of 6:55 AM ET ( 10:55 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 61 points or 0.24% to 25,100.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 29 points or 0.40% to 7,375.25.
On the earnings front, Blackstone (NYSE:BX), Domino’s Pizza Group PLC (NYSE:DPZ), Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) and many others are scheduled to report their earnings. The main focus will be on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) when it releases financial results after the close. The software firm was down 0.11% in pre-market trading.
Trade tensions resurfaced Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S. may negotiate a trade deal with Mexico. Meanwhile China said the White House was wrong to blame Chinese President Xi Jinping for blocking progress on a trade deal.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) was among the top gainers before the morning bell, rising 1.63% after reports that Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is not competing to build hardware. IBM (NYSE:IBM) increased 2.89% while ABB Ltd (NYSE:ABB) jumped 4.00% after their earnings came in better than expected.
Elsewhere eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) slumped 5.85% after missing revenue estimates, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 2.49% and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) dipped 1.40% amid news that it acquired First Aid Beauty for $250 million.
In economic news, jobless numbers comes out at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT) along with the Philly Fed manufacturing index.
In Europe stocks were mostly down. Germany’s DAX fell 52 points or 0.41% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 27 points or 0.50% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up eight points or 0.12%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 slipped nine points or 0.28% while Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 27 points or 0.28%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 1.03% to $1,215.20 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 1.48% to $66.75 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.40% to 95.22.