US STOCKS-Sino-U.S. tensions hit futures ahead of jobs report

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* Futures off: Dow 0.44%, S&P 0.43%, Nasdaq 0.46%

By Sagarika Jaisinghani
Aug 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday as
President Donald Trump's moves to ban WeChat and TikTok
intensified tensions with Beijing, while investors also braced
for data likely to show a sharp slowdown in jobs growth in July.
Underlining the disconnect between U.S. economic health and
a stimulus-led rally on Wall Street, the Nasdaq closed on
Thursday above 11,000 for the first time and the S&P 500
finished about 1% below its record high as traders counted on
Congress to agree another coronavirus relief package.
But Democratic leaders and top aides to President Donald
Trump have so far failed to make substantial progress, with
differences partly centered around continuing an extra
$600-per-week in unemployment benefits. The Labor Department's closely watched employment report
later in the day could add pressure to speed up negotiations,
with a Reuters survey of economists expecting the creation of
1.58 million jobs last month, a step-down from the record 4.8
million in June. Meanwhile, Trump late on Thursday unveiled sweeping bans on
U.S. transactions with the Chinese owners of messaging app
WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok after his administration
flagged greater effort to purge "untrusted" Chinese apps from
domestic digital networks. Shares of WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings Ltd 0700.HK fell
as much as 10% in Asia trade, while social media giant Facebook
FB.O was little changed in U.S. premarket trading. Microsoft
Corp MSFT.O , which is seeking to buy TikTok's U.S. operations,
was down about 0.7%.
New York-listed Tencent Music Entertainment Group TME.N ,
which was spun off from Tencent in 2018, fell 4.5%.
At 6:49 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 120 points,
or 0.44%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 14.5 points, or
0.43% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 51.25 points, or
0.46%.
With the second-quarter corporate earnings season largely
over, about 83% of S&P 500 companies that have reported so far
have beaten dramatically lowered estimates, with earnings on
average coming in 23.5% above expectations - the highest on
record.
T-Mobile US Inc TMUS.O was headed higher after it added
more-than-expected monthly phone subscribers and said it had
overtaken rival AT&T Inc T.N as the second-largest U.S.
wireless provider. AT&T was unchanged in trading before the bell.