US pre-open: Futures point to slightly negative start with trade woes in focus
US futures were pointing to small losses at the bell following the Memorial Day long weekend, with investors still focussed on the trade spat between the world's two largest economies.
As of 1230 BST, Dow futures were pointing to a dip of 0.09% at the opening bell to 25,596, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track to open 0.20% and 0.11% lower, respectively.
Discussing global markets ahead of the open, SpreadEx analyst Connor Campbell said: "With the FTSE in the red, and the DAX and CAC falling half a percent apiece, the Dow Jones is looking at its own 70 point decline this afternoon.
"That would undo a portion of its recent rebound, forcing it back under the 25,600 mark it had managed to push past last Friday."
All eyes were still firmly fixed on Washington and Beijing as Donald Trump, who had predicted a swift end to the trade war last week, said at a press conference in Japan on Monday that he was "not ready" to make a deal with China.
“I think they probably wish they made the deal that they had on the table before they tried to renegotiate it. They would like to make a deal. We're not ready to make a deal," he said.
Trump said American tariffs on Chinese goods "could go up very, very substantially, very easily."
Talks stalled earlier this month after Trump decided to ramp up tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods and blacklisted giant tech company Huawei.
"I think sometime in the future China and the United States will absolutely have a great trade deal, and we look forward to that," Trump said.
"Because I don’t believe that China can continue to pay these, really, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. I don't believe they can do that."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing on Monday: "The US has had various voices on China-US trade talks. Sometimes it is said that an agreement will be reached soon, and sometimes that it is difficult to reach an agreement."
"In the same period of time, China's position has always been the same. China has always believed that the differences between any two countries should of course be resolved through friendly consultations and negotiations."
On the data front, the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index and the Federal Housing Finance Agency index for March were both set to be published alongside consumer confidence figures for May at around 1400 BST, while Dallas Fed manufacturing data will follow at 1430 BST.
In corporate news, Global Payments and TSYS announced their decision to merge via an all-share transaction.
Salesforce, HEICO and Booz Allen Hamilton were all set to post results on Tuesday.