Investing.com - U.S. futures slumped on Monday, as worsening unrest in Hong Kong caused market jitters and hopes for trade detente between the U.S. and China receded.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had not agreed to end tariffs on Chinese goods as part of a trade deal, as was claimed by the Chinese Commerce Ministry earlier last week.
“They’d like to have a roll back but I’ve not agreed to anything,” he told reporters, referring to China.
Meanwhile tensions in Hong Kong surged after police opened fire on protesters who had tried to block roads and delay trains during the morning commute. One man was shot and sent to hospital in critical condition.
Nasdaq 100 were down 35 points or 0.4% by 6:49 AM ET (10:49 GMT), while Dow futures slumped 104 points or 0.4% and S&P 500 Futures dipped 10 points or 0.3%.
Stocks sensitive to trade news were lower in premarket trade. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 0.7%, while Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) slumped 2% and Micron (NASDAQ:MU) was down 1.3%.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) slipped 0.5% as it faced a gender discrimination probe by the New York Department of Financial Services into its credit card practices, caused by a series of tweets from the creator of web application framework Ruby on Rails. David Heinemeier Hansson claims Goldman Sachs approved an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Card with 20 times the credit limit of his wife, despite his wife having a better credit score.
GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:GWPH) inched up 0.5% after two of the company’s cannabis-based medications were recommended for use by the U.K.’s NHS for the first time.
The bond market is closed in observance of Veterans Day.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,466.45 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1% to 98.125. Crude oil futures declined 1.4% to $56.42 a barrel.