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* Futures down: Dow 0.29%, S&P 0.27%, Nasdaq 0.25%
By Amy Caren Daniel
May 15 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slipped on
Wednesday, as grim data out of China cast a shadow over market
sentiment, while investors awaited more developments related to
the U.S.-China trade dispute.
Markets took a breather on Tuesday after U.S. President
Donald Trump called the trade war with Beijing as "a little
squabble" and said he would talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping
at a G20 Summit in Japan late next month. The optimistic comments followed a market rout on Monday,
when the S&P 500 .SPX and the Dow .DJI recorded one of Wall
Street's worst declines this year as the two sides imposed
tit-for-tat tariffs on each others imports.
However, China is running out of options to hit back at the
United States without hurting its own interests. Data from
Beijing showed surprisingly weaker growth in retail sales and
industrial output for April, adding pressure on the country to
roll out more stimulus. Concerns that the trade dispute could be protracted and may
impact the global economy has kept investors on edge over the
past couple of days, with the benchmark S&P index now about 4%
below its all-time high reached two weeks ago.
At 6:54 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 75 points, or
0.29%. S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 7.75 points, or 0.27%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were down 18.75 points, or 0.25%.
Among stocks, Perrigo Company PLC PRGO.N dropped 1.3% in
premarket trading as Jefferies lowered its price target on the
generic drugmaker after the company's recent move to divest its
higher margin generic pet care business.
Henry Schein Inc HSIC.O fell 1.2% after SVB Leerink
downgraded the dental products distributor to "market perform"
from "outperform", citing competitive threat from online
suppliers such as Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and eBay Inc EBAY.O .
On the macro front, the U.S. Commerce Department is expected
to report retail sales numbers for April at 8:30 a.m. ET, which
is expected to rise 0.2%, following a 1.6% rise in March.