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Futures down: Dow 0.53%, S&P 500 0.34%, Nasdaq 0.26%
June 12 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slipped on
Thursday as signs of rising tensions in the Middle East weighed
on risk sentiment and investors sought more clarity on
Washington's recent trade deals with China.
Shares of planemaker Boeing ( BA ) lost 7% premarket after
an Air India aircraft with more than 200 people crashed in
India's western city of Ahmedabad, and aviation tracking site
Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday U.S. personnel were
being moved out of the Middle East as it could be a "dangerous
place", adding that the United States would not allow Iran to
have a nuclear weapon.
This comes at a volatile time for the region and just days
ahead of a planned sixth round of nuclear talks between Iran and
the United States. A senior Iranian official said earlier on
Wednesday Tehran will strike U.S. bases in the region if nuclear
negotiations fail and conflict arises.
China on Thursday affirmed a trade deal with the U.S.,
strengthening a delicate truce in the trade war that has roiled
global markets for much of the year.
"Now that a consensus has been reached, both sides should
abide by it," Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesperson for
China, said at a regular news conference.
Traders also looked to gain more details on the trade
framework discussed by officials from the U.S. and China at a
two-day talk in London earlier this week.
At 05:37 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 228 points,
or 0.53%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 19.75 points, or
0.34%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 56.25 points, or
0.26%
Tesla shares lost 1.1% and Nvidia ( NVDA ) lost
about 0.7%.
Among other movers, Oracle shares rose 7.6% after
the cloud service provider raised its annual revenue growth
forecast citing increased demand from companies deploying
artificial intelligence.
After a tame inflation report on Wednesday that provided
investors with some reprieve, focus will now be on the May
Producer Price Index data, which is due at 8:30 a.m. ET, along
with initial jobless claims data.
"May could be too soon to see the impact of tariffs, but
softer demand may also be limiting pass through. We pencil in
larger tariff effects starting later in the summer," said
Citigroup strategists in a client note.
With investor bets increasing on Trump reaching favorable
trade agreements with several trading partners in the coming
weeks, the benchmark S&P 500 index is trading 2% below
its record high touched in February.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq is about 2.7% from record
levels hit in December.
(Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty in Bengaluru; Editing by
Devika Syamnath)