Stocks - U.S. Futures to Open Lower as Uber Prepares to Debut
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are indicated to open slightly lower Friday after the well-flagged increase in tariffs on Chinese imports came into effect at midnight.
The lack of any immediate response from China despite the threat of retaliation appears to have protected a fragile peace in many markets, which have rebounded from oversold levels in both Asia and Europe, but which are still set for their worst week this year. Optimism has been supported by the knowledge that talks are continuing in Washington Friday, despite the latest developments.
Whether that optimism can be sustained is another question.
“The tariffs can be reversed. But until then, now the negotiations have a real cost that increases with every delay,” Dario Perkins, head of global macro research at TS Lombard in London, said via Twitter.
Dow futures were down 40 points or 0.2% by 7:00 AM ET (1100 GMT), while S&P 500 futures lost 8 points or 0.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures contract was down 16 points or 0.2%.
The day's big event will be the debut of Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER), which starts trading Friday after pricing its IPO at $45 a share, just above the bottom end of the announced marketing range. The company sold over $8 billion in stock at a valuation of just over $82 billion in the largest IPO since Alibaba 's (NYSE:BABA) four years ago.
Among other stocks poised for a lively opening, Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) is set to open down over 12% after announcing the surprise resignation of its CEO Greg Clark late on Thursday, while real estate site Zillow is indicated to open up over 7% after its first-quarter report surprised with a larger revenue contribution from its home-flipping business.
Elsewhere, crude oil futures are recovering and are on track to end the week roughly where they started it. U.S. crude futures were at $62.16 a barrel, up 0.8% on the day, while the international benchmark Brent was at $70.95 a barrel
Elsewhere in commodities, gold futures inched 0.1% higher to $1,286.25 a troy ounce, while in the currency market, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was a fraction lower on the day at 97.13.
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