Stock futures flat as political worries keep investors wary

[March 16, 2018]   By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat opening for Wall Street on Friday as continuing turmoil in the Trump administration kept investors on edge.

The three main indexes were set to record losses for the week that was dominated by concerns of global trade war and political drama that started with the exit of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump had decided to remove H.R. McMaster as his national security advisor.

However, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders tweeted that there were no changes at the National Security Council.

By 6:56 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were down 1 point. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> rose just 3 points and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> 4 points.

The Dow <.DJI> closed on Thursday with slight gains as fears about a global trade war eased after comments from Peter Navarro, the White House's top adviser on international trade.

However, the S&P 500 <.SPX> recorded its longest losing streak in 2018 after the New York Times reported that U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed the Trump Organization for documents, including some related to Russia.

The U.S. Commerce Department is set to release its housing starts data for February at 8:30 a.m. ET. The report will likely show homebuilding declined 1.290 million units.

Traders work on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Other economic data due on Friday include February industrial production, job openings and labor turnover for January and the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for March.

Tiffany & Co <TIF.N> fell 4.2 percent after the upscale jeweler missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly same-store sales and full-year profit forecast.

Adobe Systems <ADBE.O> rose about 5 percent in premarket trading after the Photoshop maker topped analysts' profit and revenue estimates for the seventh straight quarter.

Qualcomm Inc <QCOM.O> shares gained 3 percent after former chairman Paul Jacobs told the board that he would seek to partner with investment firms to make an offer for the chipmaker.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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