US pre-open: Futures point to heavy losses at the opening bell
US stocks looked set to open significantly lower on Monday with futures pointing to triple digit losses at the bell.
As of 1200 BST, the Dow Jones Industrials was being called to start the session down by 1.18% at around 25,668, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq looked set to open 1.23% and 1.64% lower, respectively.
Futures pointed a loss of more than 300 points at the opening bell for the Dow Industrials as major markets across the globe, which finished higher on Friday despite Donald Trump following through on his threats to raise tariffs on $200bn-worth of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%, seemed unable to maintain that same confidence in the new week.
Over the weekend, Trump told China it should act now to reach an agreement, warning Beijing it could be subjected to a worse deal moving forward if negotiations dragged on into his potential second term in the White House.
Trump stated China had been "beaten so badly" in the trade negotiations that it was holding out until after the 2020 election in order to try their hand at negotiating with a Democratic president.
Discussing the tariff hike, Chinese press said the "fierce US offensive is irrational" adding that the notion that Beijing could not weather a trade war was a fantastical misjudgement.
"China has been pushing forward the bilateral talks with a high sense of responsibility and maximised sincerity, but it will never yield to the extreme pressure from the US, or compromise on matters of principle," read The People’s Daily, the Central Committee of the Communist Party's official newspaper.
However, despite the tensions between the world's two largest economies, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow revealed that Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping were likely to meet at the G-20 summit in Japan next June.
Kudlow claimed the chances of the pair meeting "were pretty good," but he did warn there were "no concrete, definite plans".
On the data front, with no major releases scheduled for Monday, investors were likely to keep their focus on Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren and Fed vice chairman Richard Clarida, both of whom were set to speak at separate conferences.
In terms of corporate news, e-commerce platform provider Jumia picked up 2.04% in pre-market trading following its first-quarter results, while Uber dropped 2.24% ahead of the bell after the ride-hailing app's trading debut continued to disappoint.
Lastly, West Texas Intermediate was trading 1.36% firmer at $62.50 per barrel and Brent Crude was changing hands at $71.75 a barrel, a 1.60% increase, after Saudi Arabia revealed two of its oil tankers had been attacked near the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.