LDN - Business

Futures slip as Trump's travel bans spark uncertainty

[January 30, 2017] By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday as President Donald Trump's orders to curb immigration from certain countries triggered uncertainty and protests across the world.

* Trump on Friday put a 120-day hold on allowing refugees into the United States, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a 90-day bar on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya and four other nations. Several countries including long-standing American allies criticized the measures as discriminatory and divisive.

* The promise of tax cuts and simpler regulations under Trump lured investors into equity markets since his election, but some are concerned about the potential risk of Trump's protectionist stance on world trade and economy.

* The pullback suggests that the Dow Jones Industrial Average could slip from the 20,000 mark it achieved for the first time ever on Wednesday.

* Wall Street slipped on Friday as underwhelming corporate earnings and economic data dampened the enthusiasm of the post-election rally.

* The dollar eased on Monday as investors turned averse to risk and sought the traditionally safe Japanese yen. Gold was little changed, while oil prices were slightly higher.

* Also bearing on investors' minds is a raft of economic data including consumer spending, personal income and core inflation data for December expected at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT).

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* The Federal Reserve's policy-setting committee kicks off a two-day meeting on Tuesday, where it is expected to keep interest rates unchanged. However, investors are keen to know how policymakers view the risks in the economy and future path of rate hikes.

* Shares of big technology companies Microsoft, Alphabet and Netflix were down between 0.44 percent and 0.56 percent in premarket trading on Monday. Apple and Facebook, scheduled to report results this week, were also lower.

* Tempur Sealy dropped 22.2 percent to $49.15 after the company said it terminated its contracts with mattress retailer Mattress Firm following disagreements over changes in their contracts.

Futures snapshot at 6:53 a.m. ET:

* Dow e-minis were down 46 points, or 0.23 percent, with 16,987 contracts changing hands.

* S&P 500 e-minis were down 6.5 points, or 0.28 percent, with 89,320 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 18.5 points, or 0.36 percent, on volume of 18,105 contracts.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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