US stock futures tip Wall Street for a lower start on Friday as investors grew increasingly anxious over the US-China trade spat and global growth.
S&P 500 futures were down 0.5 per cent to 2,690.75. If the decline were to carry over to regular trade it would leave the benchmark index on track for its second weekly drop of the year.
Meanwhile, Dow futures were down 0.45 per cent to 25,018 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.7 per cent to 6,853.75.
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, notching back-to-back declines after President Donald Trump ruled out a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before the March 1 deadline to strike a deal and avoid an escalation of tariffs.
The president had fuelled hopes of a deal just last week when he noted talks between the two nations were “going well” and said the two leaders would meet in the “near future” and that no final deal would be struck until they had met. On Thursday however, Mr Trump answered “no” when asked by reporters in the Oval Office if he would meet Mr Xi before the deadline.
Prior to Mr Trump’s remarks, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Thursday had also noted that Washington and Beijing still had a “pretty sizeable distance to go here” referring to trade discussions between the two countries.
Renewed fears about the health of global economy also weighed on markets. Overnight, the Reserve Bank of Australia lowered its GDP forecast as well amid a worsening outlook for the Chinese economy. That followed a cut to economic activity forecasts for the eurozone by the European Commission on Thursday and a downgrade to UK GDP by the Bank of England.
Earnings also continued to paint a mixed picture with Hasbro shares down sharply after the toymaker noted it continued to feel the affects of Toys R Us liquidation, which weighed on its holiday quarter sales. While Mattel’s shares climbed after it said its revenues fell less than feared in the fourth quarter. Expedia shares jumped after its earnings topped expectations.
Elsewhere in markets the yield on the US 10-year slid 1.3 basis points to 2.645 per cent, while that on the two-year was down 0.6 basis points to 2.473 per cent. Yields move inversely to price.
The dollar index, a gauge of the buck against a weighted basket of peers, was little changed at 96.52.
