Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a slightly lower opening bell on Friday, as trade tariffs against China went into effect.
The S&P 500 futures fell four points or 0.15% to 2,734.50 as of 6:47 AM ET (10:47 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 73 points or 0.30% to 24,270.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 11 points or 0.16% to 7,114.00.
Trade conflict between the two biggest economies in the world began in force on Friday, when U.S. tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods went into effect at 12:01 AM ET (04:01 GMT). An additional tariffs on another $16 billion is expected to go into effect in two weeks. Meanwhile U.S. President Donald Trump has given instructions to identify a further $300 billion on possible Chinese goods.
China has also retaliated with tariffs on $34 billion of American goods, according to Xinhua news. Beijing had previously said it would impose tariffs on U.S. agricultural products, crude imports, and vehicle products.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was among the top gainers in pre-market trading, inching up 0.11% while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rose 0.03%.
Elsewhere Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) fell 0.38% while semiconductor Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) dipped 0.32% and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was down 0.32% after reports that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) won’t use the companies 5G modems in its 2020 iPhones.
In economics news, nonfarm payrolls comes out at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
In Europe stocks were mostly flat. Germany’s DAX rose two points or 0.02% while in France the CAC 40 increased three points or 0.06% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 10 points or 0.14%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained two points or 0.06% while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched up three points or 0.04%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.28% to $1,255.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.37% to $72.67 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.07% to 94.06.