Futures slide as Trump threatens new tariffs on China

By C Nivedita

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures slid on Friday after President Donald Trump threatened to slap new tariffs on China over the coronavirus crisis, while Apple and Amazon became the latest companies to warn of more pain in the future.

Trump said late on Thursday his trade deal with China was now of secondary importance to the pandemic, as his administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.

The threat pulled attention back to the trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has kept global financial markets on tenterhooks for nearly two years.

Also weighing on sentiment was a 2.6% fall in Apple Inc shares in premarket trading after the company said it was impossible to forecast overall results for the current quarter, even as it reported upbeat quarterly results.

Amazon.com Inc shares tumbled 5% after the company said it could post its first quarterly loss in five years as it was spending at least $4 billion in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Wall Street fell on Thursday as grim economic data and mixed earnings prompted investors to take profits at the end of the S&P 500’s best month in 33 years, a remarkable run driven by hopes of reopening the economy from crushing virus-induced restrictions.

Markets will also keep a close eye on the ISM’s purchasing managers index (PMI) data, due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The report comes a day after data showed U.S. initial jobless claims totalled 3.84 million for the week ended April 25 and personal spending tumbled 7.5% in March, the biggest decline on record.

Meanwhile, oil majors Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp are expected to post their first-quarter earnings later in the day.

At 06:26 a.m. EDT, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were down 418 points, or 1.73%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 53.75 points, or 1.85% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 207.25 points, or 2.31%

SPDR S&P 500 ETFs were down 1.82%

The S&P 500 index <.SPX> closed down 0.92% at 2,912.43 on Thursday.

(Reporting by C Nivedita and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)