U.S. stock index futures were lower Friday, with market participants increasingly worried about a broadening global economic slowdown.
At around 7 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 139 points, indicating a loss of 144.53 points at the open. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were also lower.
The losses extended Thursday’s sell-off, spurred by uncertainty surrounding the China-U.S. trade talks. The Dow industrials dropped 220.77 points to 25,169.53, while the S&P 500 pulled back 0.94 percent to 2,706.05 and the Nasdaq Composite slid about 1.2 percent to close at 7,288.35.
Market focus on Friday continued to be attuned to global trade developments, after President Donald Trump said he did not plan to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline to reach a deal.
Trump’s stance rattled investors hoping for a positive resolution to a long-running trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
While Trump and Xi are still expected to meet eventually, there’s too much work to do to flesh out a deal with China and prepare Trump for a high-stakes meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Trump’s summit with Kim is set for February 27-28.
Elsewhere, the European Commission on Thursday sharply downgraded its forecast for euro zone economic growth in 2019 and 2020. The news exacerbated fears that a global economic downturn is spreading to Europe.
There are no major economic reports scheduled on Friday.
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Source: cnbc.com | Original Link