Stocks- U.S. Futures Point to Lower Opening Bell After Trump Tweet Storm

U.S. Futures were lower on Monday, after U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a tweet storm over the weekend, sparking another round of political uncertainty.

The S&P 500 futures fell 14 points or 0.54% to 2,741.25 as of 6:42 AM ET (10:42 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 131 points or 0.52% to 24,834.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was down 98 and a half points or 1.40% to 6,945.50

On Sunday morning, Trump accused Special Counsel Robert Mueller of hiring “hardened Democrats” to investigate a ties between the 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added...does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!

1:35 PM - Mar 18, 2018

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In another tweet, Trump dismissed the idea that former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe had incriminating documents. McCabe was fired on Friday, just two days before his retirement.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe, but he never took notes when he was with me. I don’t believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?

1:22 PM - Mar 18, 2018

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Investors have been on edge lately over changing trade policy in Washington and a flurry of Trump administration departures. Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports early in the month, which have risen trade war uncertainty. He also fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week and Gary Cohn resigned from his role as director of the National Economic Council after disagreements over the tariffs.

Markets are also looking ahead to Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve delivers its interest rate decision. Traders are expecting an interest rate increase as Fed chair Jerome Powell gives his first press conference.

Nokia (HE:NOKIA) Corp ADR (NYSE:NOK) was among the biggest gainers in pre-market trading, rising 0.52% while Barclays (LON:BARC) PLC ADR (NYSE:BCS) surged 3.66% and Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) inched up 0.17%.

Elsewhere social media sites took a hit amid data privacy concerns. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) slumped 3.75% amid news that political research firm Cambridge Analytica collected data on 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge whileTwitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) fell 2.67%.

In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 116 points or 0.94% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 35 points or 0.67% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 91 points or 1.28%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 25 points or 0.74% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 64 points or 0.66%.

In commodities, gold futures inched down 0.05% to $1,311.60 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.34% to $62.20 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, decreased 0.11% to 89.70.