Futures flat as trade worries linger; Apple event in focus

[September 12, 2018]  By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were flat early on Wednesday, held back by worries over the Sino-U.S. trade war, while Apple shares moved higher ahead of the expected launch of new iPhone models.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., September 7, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Shares of Apple <AAPL.O> rose 0.4 percent in premarket trading, ahead of an event at 1 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) in which it is expected to three new iPhone models. [nL2N1VX1AC]

Shares of energy companies were among the top gainers on the S&P 500 as oil prices hovered near $80 per barrel on growing concern over global supply. Chevron's <CVX.N> 0.9 percent gain was the most among the Dow <.DJI> components trading premarket.

Lingering worries over an escalation in trade dispute got a fresh impetus on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said Washington was taking a tough stance with China, cementing expectations that fresh levies on Chinese exports will soon be announced. [nS0N1UT00Q]

More than 60 U.S. industry groups are launching a coalition to take the fight against Trump's tariffs public. [nL2N1VX1X6]

At 7:38 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were down 19 points, or 0.07 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were down 1.5 points, or 0.05 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 2.5 points, or 0.03 percent.

Gilead Sciences <GILD.O> rose 3 percent after its rheumatoid arthritis drug, being developed jointly with Galapagos NV <GLPG.AS>, met the main goal of a study.

Micron <MU.O> fell 3.7 percent after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on expectations of lower prices for memory chips due to an oversupply of DRAM and NAND chips.

Goldman Sachs said the same condition would hit Seagate Technology <STX.O> and Western Digital <WDC.O>, echoing other brokerages. Seagate dropped 2 percent and Western Digital fell 1.5 percent.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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