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Stocks- U.S. Futures Slump as Trade War Fears Rise

Published 2018-03-23, 06:44 a/m
Updated 2018-03-23, 06:48 a/m
© Reuters.  U.S. futures continued to fall on Friday.

© Reuters. U.S. futures continued to fall on Friday.

Investing.com – U.S. Futures pointed to a lower opening bell on Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese imports led to a sharp decline in global stocks.

The S&P 500 futures was down seven and a half points or 0.28% to 2,635.75 as of 6:43 AM ET (10:43 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 103 points or 0.43% to 23,860.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 53 points or 0.79% to 6,639.0.

Stocks tumbled on Thursday as Trump announced tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports in retaliation for China’s unfair seizure of U.S. intellectual property.

China promptly retaliated with plans to announce tariffs of its own against the U.S., rising concern among investors of a global trade war.

The announcements came as markets were already throttled from a rout in February and as investors prepare for increased interest rates. The Federal Reserve’s decision to hike the interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday and increase the pace of tightening has also left markets on edge.

Technology stocks continued to fall as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) faced criticism for breaching data privacy after a third-party targeted 50 million users with political ads without their knowledge. Facebook was down 1.12% in pre-market trading while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dipped 0.99% and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) fell 1.98%.

Elsewhere Nike (NYSE:NKE) surged 3.52% after news that it was acquiring data analytics firm Zodiac.

In economic news, durable goods is released at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT) while new home sales comes out at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT).

In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 195 points or 1.62% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 82 points or 1.59% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 49 points or 0.72%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 45 points or 1.37% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 116 points or 1.32%.

In commodities, gold futures surged 1.11% to $1,342.10 a troy ounce while crude oil futures rose 0.36% to $64.53 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.20% to 89.29.

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