Investing.com – U.S. futures were mixed on Monday, with the Dow set to open nearly 200 points lower after the deadly crash of a Boeing (NYSE:BA) 737 Max in Ethiopia hit the index's biggest component.
Boeing was down nearly 9% as of 6:40 AM ET (10:40 GMT), while the Dow futures lost 173 points or 0.68%, after the plane, operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after take-off on Sunday. There were no survivors among the 157 on board, and the disaster came just months after a crash involving the same airplane model in Indonesia.
China has ordered all Boeing 737 Max planes be grounded, a measure that could have implications for demand for the latest version of Boeing's short-haul workhorse if safety inspections reveal any shortcomings.
Other stock indexes were in the green, with the S&P 500 futures rising 1 point or 0.07% while and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up 14 points or 0.20% after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told CNBC’s 60 Minutes that the central bank is not in a hurry to change the level of interest rates.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was among the top gainers in premarket trading, rising 1.3% amid news that the luxury car maker will raise its prices. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 1.7% after Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) analysts upgraded it to buy, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was up 1.6% and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) inched up 0.2%.
Elsewhere, CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL) slipped 2.4% after it was downgraded by UBS Group to neutral, while Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) slumped 1.6% after allegations that it hired a former senior national treasury official in order to secure a contract to supply software for South Africa’s IT systems.
On the data front, the Commerce Department will publish a delayed retail sales report for January at 8:30AM ET (12:30 GMT).
In commodities, gold futures inched down 0.2% to $1,296.25 a troy ounce, while crude oil rose 0.9% to $56.59 a barrel, on news that Saudi Arabia intends to keep pumping well below its agreed ceiling under an OPEC-led deal on restraining oil supply. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.06% to 97.328.