US STOCKS-Wall St eyes weak open as trade war fears add to virus woes

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* Chipmaker stocks fall in premarket trade
* Wall St indexes eye worst week since mid-March
* Futures down: Dow 0.95%, S&P 1.04%, Nasdaq 1.43%

(Adds details, updates prices)
By Ambar Warrick and Medha Singh
May 15 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
open lower on Friday after the Trump administration's move to
block semiconductor shipments to China's Huawei Technologies
ratcheted up fears of trade hostilities between Washington and
Beijing.
In response, the Global Times editor-in-chief said China
would activate the "unreliable entity list", restrict or
investigate U.S. companies such as Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O , Cisco
Systems Inc CSCO.O , Apple Inc AAPL.O and suspend the
purchase of Boeing Co BA.N airplanes. The Global Times is published by the People's Daily, the
official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party. While the
Global Times is not an official mouthpiece of the party, its
views are believed to reflect those of its leaders.
Boeing fell 2.9% premarket, the most among the constituents
of the Dow Jones index .DJI , while Apple and Cisco dropped
more than 2%.
Trade-sensitive chipmakers Qualcomm, Micron Technology Inc
MU.O and Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD.O declined between
2% and 6%.
This comes a day after President Donald Trump signaled a
further deterioration of his relationship with China over the
coronavirus outbreak, going so far as to suggest he could even
cut ties with the world's second largest economy.
A renewed Sino-U.S. trade war could exacerbate the economic
downturn caused by the pandemic.
"The overarching concern that we've had as this epidemic has
worked its way around the globe is that U.S.-China relations are
heading in the wrong direction and that can cause a worse
economic effect than the pandemic itself," said Art Hogan, chief
market strategist at National Securities in New York.
In another sign of economic duress, the U.S. Commerce
Department's report showed retail sales in April sank more than
expected, marking a second straight month of record declines as
the coronavirus kept shoppers at home. At 8:45 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 224 points,
or 0.95%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 29.75 points, or
1.04% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 130 points, or
1.43%.
Stock futures initially rose on Friday after positive
Chinese industrial output data indicated certain facets of the
economy would be able to bounce back quickly from the outbreak,
although retail sales in the country fell. Wall Street's main indexes ended a choppy session higher on
Thursday, with the S&P 500 rising more than 1% as investors
looked forward to the prospect of some U.S. states lifting curbs
on business and social activities.
Still, all three major U.S. stock indexes are set for their
worst week since mid-March, as sobering comments on the pandemic
from major U.S. officials pointed to a longer period of
economic weakness.
Abbott Laboratories ABT.N slipped 2.7% after U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) said the company's speedy coronavirus
test could potentially be inaccurate, but can still be used to
test patients.