US STOCKS-Wall St set to slide at open as Trump warns of new China tariffs

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* U.S.-China trade spat back in spotlight
* Apple falls after holding back forecast on virus
uncertainty
* Amazon.com slides as it sees possible Q2 loss
* Futures down: Dow 1.88%, S&P 500 2.08%, Nasdaq 2.30%

(Adds more comments, updates prices throughout)
By C Nivedita and Shreyashi Sanyal
May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were set to fall at the
open on Friday after President Donald Trump threatened to slap
new tariffs on China over the coronavirus crisis, while Apple
and Amazon became the latest companies to warn of more pain in
the future.
Trump said late on Thursday his trade deal with China was
now of secondary importance to the pandemic, as his
administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.
The threat pulled attention back to the trade war between
the world's two largest economies that has kept global financial
markets on tenterhooks for nearly two years.
"(Trump) has really thrown a spanner in the works of the
recovery that we've seen (in April)," said David Madden, a
market analyst at CMC Markets UK in London.
"Traders are now afraid that we could now go back to the
prolonged period of a trade spat between the United States and
China."
Wall Street ended lower on the last day of April, taking
some shine off the S&P 500 index's .SPX best month in 33 years
that was driven by dramatic stimulus measures and hopes of
reopening the economy from crushing virus-induced restrictions.
Technology heavyweight Apple Inc AAPL.O slipped 2.3% in
premarket trading after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said it
was impossible to forecast overall results for the current
quarter because of uncertainty created by the virus.
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O tumbled 4.8% after the company said
it could post its first quarterly loss in five years as it was
spending at least $4 billion in response to the coronavirus
pandemic. With nearly half of the S&P 500 companies having reported
results so far, analysts expect a 14.4% fall in profits for the
first-quarter and foresee an even sharper decline of nearly 37%
for the current-quarter.
Exxon Mobil XOM.N fell 1.4% after it reported a
first-quarter loss, compared with a year-earlier profit, hurt by
crashing oil prices, while Chevron Corp CVX.N dipped 0.9%
after its quarterly revenue took a big hit.
At 8:58 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 455 points,
or 1.88%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 60.25 points, or
2.08% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 206.75 points, or
2.3%.
Markets will also keep a close watch on the ISM's purchasing
managers index (PMI) data, due at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The report comes a day after data showed U.S. initial
jobless claims totalled 3.84 million for the week ended April
25.
"Every time we get economic data it adds a small amount of
visibility into the significant unknowns about what to expect
over the next 12 months," said Phil Toews, chief executive
officer of investment firm Toews Corp in New York.
United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O slipped 4.7% after
posting a first-quarter loss of $1.7 billion. Clorox Co CLX.N rose 3.5% after the company posted its
biggest rise in quarterly sales in nearly a decade and raised
its annual forecast, reaping the benefits of a boom in demand
for bleach and other disinfectants.