U.S. stock futures wobble as trade worries rumble on

U.S. stock futures struggled on Monday, with investors focused on fresh rumblings on the trade front and another big batch of earnings headed their way.

What are the main benchmarks doing?

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMU8, +0.11% slipped 15 points to 25,395, while S&P 500 futures ESU8, +0.08%  fell 2.5 points to 2,837. Nasdaq-100 futures NQU8, +0.14% were flat at 7,402.

The Dow DJIA, +0.54% closed out last week with a gain of less than 0.1%, while the S&P SPX, +0.46%  rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.12%  ended the week 1% higher.

What’s driving markets?

Trade-war tensions were causing some wobbles for stock futures and international equities, as reflected in the Shanghai Composite’s SHCOMP, -1.29%  over 1% drop on Monday. A weekend editorial in China’s Global Times newspaper, known for its nationalistic views, said the country was ready for a “protracted war” over trade and that Washington had “lost its mind” over the skirmish.

On Friday, China announced tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. products, in response to the U.S.’s planned 25% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports. On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted that tariffs are “working big time.”

Meanwhile, data showed German manufacturing orders plunged 4% in June, an indication that the global trade dispute is taking a bite out of corporate investments. The German DAX 30 index DAX, +0.60%  fell 0.4%.

The only U.S. economic item on the agenda is a July survey of consumer expectations, due for release at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

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Which stocks are in focus?

Tesla Inc. TSLA, -0.39%  shares fell 1.3% in thin premarket trading. Shares rallied 17% last week, largely due to quarterly earnings that were released Thursday. CEO Elon Musk taunted short sellers, who are sitting on paper losses of nearly $2 billion, over Twitter early Sunday with a video meme of Adolf Hitler.

What are other markets doing?

The U.S. dollar index DXY, +0.27% inched up 0.2% to 95.295. European stocks SXXP, +0.17% moved lower, led by a 0.6% drop for the FTSE 100 index UKX, +0.06% while Asian markets finished mixed.

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