Investing.com – U.S. futures took a sudden dive on Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports.
The S&P 500 futures fell six points or 0.23% to 2,798.75 as of 6:48 AM ET ( 10:48 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 100 points or 0.40% to 24,959.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures inched up six points or 0.09% to 7,374.50.
Trump said in an interview on CNBC that he is ready to impose tariffs on $500 billion worth of Chinese goods to the U.S. if China does not back down on its trade policies.
“I’m not doing this for politics, I’m doing this to do the right thing for our country” he said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “We have been ripped off by China for a long time.”
The U.S. has already imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods, with another $200 billion being looked at. China has already retaliated with $34 billion of its own tariffs on American goods.
On the earnings front, General Electric (NYSE:GE) surged 2.77% and Honeywell International Inc (NYSE:HON) rose 0.72% in pre-market trading after their earnings came in higher than expected. State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT), Baker Hughes A Ge Company LLC (NYSE:BHGE), and others are also expected to report on Friday.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was among the top gainers in before the morning bell, rising 3.69% after reporting higher than expected earnings while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) increased 0.23%.
Meanwhile other technology stocks fell, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) down 0.07%, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) decreasing 0.32% and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) falling 0.12%.
In Europe stocks also slumped after Trump’s comments. Germany’s DAX fell 70 points or 0.55% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 42 points or 0.79% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 23 points or 0.31%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 slipped 15 points or 0.44% while Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 40 points or 0.42%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.01% to $1,223.90 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.40% to $67.97 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.09% to 94.89.