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Futures down: Dow 0.28%, S&P 500 0.24%, Nasdaq 0.15%

Feb 4 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower on Tuesday as

investors stayed away from risky assets after China deployed

retaliatory tariffs against the world's biggest economy.

Minutes after President Donald Trump's 10% tariff on

China kicked in at 12:01 a.m. ET (0501 GMT), the Asian country's

finance ministry

announced

tariffs on some U.S. imports.

Trump had also levied a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and

Canada over the weekend, but agreed to a 30-day pause on Monday

in return for concessions on border and crime from both nations.

The last minute change helped the three major U.S. stock

indexes pare some of the heavy losses notched earlier on Monday

and close trading well off the session's lows.

"The events of the last few days have once again shown that

anything can be expected of Trump," Commerzbank economists said

in a note.

"There is still a high risk that significant tariffs and

disruptions in international trade will ultimately occur."

The S&P 500 had come as close as eight points away

from all-time highs on Friday before selling off as the tariffs

commentary rattled global markets.

Three Fed officials warned on Monday trade tariffs come with

inflation risks, with one arguing that uncertainty over the

outlook for prices calls for slower interest-rate cuts than

otherwise.

Traders are pricing in no interest-rate action from the

Federal Reserve before June, as per the CME's FedWatch Tool.

Comments from three Fed leaders including Atlanta's Raphael

Bostic are expected throughout the day.

On the data front, a December job openings reading is due

before the bell on Tuesday, with the all-important January

nonfarm payrolls report slated for Friday.

At 05:08 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 126 points,

or 0.28%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 14.5 points, or

0.24%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 31.25 points, or

0.15%.

The quarterly earnings season raged on, with payments

platform PayPal ( PYPL ), snack maker PepsiCo ( PEP ) and

drugmaker Pfizer ( PFE ) among the prominent companies reporting

before markets open.

Google-parent Alphabet, gaming firm Electronic

Arts ( EA ) and chipmaker AMD are reporting after

markets close on Tuesday.

Among premarket movers, biotechnology firm Illumina ( ILMN )

dropped 4.7%, while PVH Corp ( PVH ), the holding company for

brands including Calvin Klein, fell 4% after China put the firms

on its "unreliable entity list".

Palantir ( PLTR ) jumped 18.4% after the data analytics

company forecast first-quarter and annual revenue above Wall

Street estimates.