Futures dip after China's tough stance on trade

[May 17, 2019]   By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures dipped on Friday, following three consecutive sessions of gains, as trade worries returned after a Chinese newspaper took a hard stance on the tariff dispute between the United States and China.

The trade war will only make China stronger and will never bring the country to its knees, the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily wrote in a front-page commentary.

Chinese stocks took the hardest hit on Friday, with the blue-chip CSI300 index dropping 2.5%, accumulating weekly losses of 2.2%.

Beijing's higher tariffs on U.S. products on a $60 billion target list will take effect on June 1, which could prompt Washington to go ahead with tariffs on a further $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.

The two sides are expected to meet in China to resume trade talks soon.

Boeing Co, the single largest U.S. exporter to China slipped 0.3% in premarket trading and Caterpillar fell 0.5%.

Technology companies including iPhone maker Apple Inc and chipmakers, which rely on China for a large portion of their revenue, were also hit by trade fears.

All three major indexes have posted three consecutive days of gains as upbeat quarterly results and a batch of strong economic data helped ease worries of a global economic slowdown.

The S&P 500 index is now about 2% away from its record high hit earlier this month.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 16, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

At 6:37 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 120 points, or 0.46%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 14.25 points, or 0.50% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 47.5 points, or 0.62%.

Shares of Micron Technology Inc, Broadcom Inc and Intel Corp fell about 1%.

However, graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp rose 1.4% after forecasting second-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates.

Applied Materials Inc gained 5.4% after the chip gear maker's upbeat third-quarter profit eased concerns about waning chip demand.

Under Armour Inc rose 3.3% after JP Morgan upgraded the sports wear maker to "overweight" from "neutral".

Online scrapbook company Pinterest Inc shares slumped 14.9% after the recent Wall Street debutant forecast 2019 revenue broadly in line with Wall Street targets.

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

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