Investing.com - U.S. futures slumped on Tuesday as trade war tensions escalated.
The S&P 500 futures were down 30 points or 1.10% to 2,749.25 as of 6:45 AM ET (10:45 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 328 points or 1.31% to 24,688.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 76 points or 1.04% to 7,200.00
Trade tensions between China and the U.S. continued, as the two largest economies in the world faced a tit-for-tat over global trade tariffs.
In the latest spat, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese goods "if China refuses to change its practices, and also if it insists on going forward with the new tariffs that it has recently announced," the president said.
On Friday Trump announced a 25% tariff on $50 billion Chinese goods, with China promptly retaliating with a 25% tariff on U.S. goods, including soybeans and automobiles, worth $34 billion.
Stocks across most major sectors were lower, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) down 0.92%, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) slumping 1.74% and General Electric (NYSE:GE) falling 1.59%. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) decreased 1.80% while JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) fell 1.23% and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) dipped 1.32%.
Meanwhile software firm Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) inched up 0.40%.
In economic news, housing starts and building permits come out at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT) while St. Louis Fed President James Bullard is expected to speak at the ECB Forum in Sintra, Portugal.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 158 points or 1.24% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 56 points or 1.03% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 31 points or 0.41%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 38 points or 1.10% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 70 points or 0.72%.
In commodities, gold futures were up 0.12% to $1,281.70 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 1.29% to $64.84 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.46% to 94.84.