Stocks - US Futures Lower amid Trade War Fears

By Peter Nurse   

Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open lower Friday, coming off their best month in decades, as President Donald Trump threatened to reignite a trade conflict with China in retaliation for the coronavirus outbreak.

At 06:55 AM ET (1055 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 57 points, or 2%, lower, Nasdaq 100 Futures down 222 points, or 2.5%. The Dow Jones 30 Futures contract fell 451 points, or 1.9%.

Wall Street enjoyed April The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 11.1%, while the S&P 500 ended up 12.7%, their best monthly gains since 1987 and best April performances since 1938. The NASDAQ Composite booked a monthly return of 15.5%, its best month since 2000 and the best April on record.

Late Thursday, Trump said trade relations with China now had to give way in importance to the coronavirus pandemic and he threatened new tariffs on Beijing who he blames for the spread of the virus,

It was only in January that Trump signed a first phase of a multibillion-dollar trade deal with China, seeking to quell what had become a damaging trade war.

"We signed a trade deal where they're supposed to buy, and they've been buying a lot, actually. But that now becomes secondary to what took place with the virus," Trump said. "The virus situation is just not acceptable."

The corporate earnings season continues Thursday, with the oil sector in focus as U.S. giants Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) report before the bell.

Chevron beat on the bottom line and announced it was further cutting capital expenditure to try and protect its dividend yield. 

Elsewhere, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock traded 4.9% lower premarket after stating it would spend its entire second-quarter profit, seen at around $4 billion, on Covid-19 related expenses. 

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dropped 2.5% premarket after failing to provide an earnings forecast in more than a decade. 

United Airlines fell 4.3% premarket after Late Thursday announced a loss of $1.7 billion in the first quarter, due to “the most disruptive global crisis in the history of aviation.” 

Boeing (NYSE:BA) stock dropped 2.4% premarket after raising $25 billion in a bond offering but said it wouldn’t seek federal aid to help bail it out.

Turning to economic data, the April purchasing managers’ index is due at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT), and is expected to have dropped to 36.9 last month from 49.1 in March. The index hit a record low below 30 in 1980.

Oil futures retreated Friday, and traders will get some more insight later Friday into how production may be falling in the U.S.

Baker Hughes will issue its oil rig count at 1 PM ET (17:00 GMT). Last week the number of rigs in operation fell to 378 from 438.

At 6:55 AM ET, U.S. crude June futures traded 2.1% lower at $18.45 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract fell 2.1% to $25.93.

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Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,683.30/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.0979, up 0.2%.