(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures dipped on Thursday as investors shied away from risk-taking after another bout of tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, while geopolitical worries and a cautious Federal Reserve further dented sentiment.
Trump said on Wednesday he will announce fresh tariffs over the next month or sooner, adding lumber and forest products to previously announced plans to impose duties on imported cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Since returning to office four weeks ago, Trump has imposed an additional 10% tariff on all imports from China. He also announced, and then delayed for a month 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.
Last week, he unveiled plans to slap reciprocal tariffs on all countries that have tariffs on U.S. goods.
Amid rising speculation on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Trump on Wednesday denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a “dictator” and warned he had to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country.
Traditional safe-haven assets gold and the Japanese yen trended higher, while Treasury yields – which move inversely to prices – also edged lower.
Meanwhile, minutes from the Fed’s January policy meeting showed on Wednesday that Trump’s initial policy proposals raised inflationary concerns at the central bank.
Policymakers agreed they should hold interest rates steady until it was clear that inflation, largely stalled since the middle of 2024, would dependably fall to the central bank’s 2% target.
The S&P 500 crawled to a record closing high for the second time this week on Wednesday, as markets took stock of the Fed’s meeting minutes and Trump’s directives.
“Trump continues to announce new policy plans on many fronts, but broader financial market moves in response to such plans have not been huge lately,” analysts at Nordea wrote in a note.
“Given all the uncertainties involved, it is too early to draw definite conclusions on the outcomes.”
A weekly jobless claims reading and comments from at least four Fed officials, including Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, are due later in the day.
Results from retail giant Walmart, a bellwether for how the American consumer is faring, are due before the bell.
Toymaker Hasbro and Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba are some of the other prominent companies reporting earnings before markets open.
At 4:46 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 60 points, or 0.13%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 13.5 points, or 0.22%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 64.5 points, or 0.29%.
Most megacap and growth stocks ticked lower in premarket trading, though Microsoft was an outlier with a 1% advance.
Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled a new chip that it said showed quantum computing is “years, not decades” away.
Palantir Technologies, which provides governments with services such as software that visualizes army positions, fell 2.2% after the Pentagon said on Wednesday it was looking at potential budget cuts for the fiscal year 2026.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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