Dow set to open more than 250 points lower ahead of tariff announcement
Fred Imbert | Alexandra Gibbs
Published 2 Hours Ago Updated Moments Ago
CNBC.com
U.S. stock index futures ticked lower ahead of Thursday's open, as investors braced for a tariff announcement from the White House.
Around 8:51 a.m. ET, Dow futures dropped 296 points, indicating a drop of 255 points at the open. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 futures also indicated a negative open for their respective markets. The moves in premarket trade come after Wall Street finished Wednesday's session in the red.
The Trump administration is set to announce later on Thursday tariffs designed to punish China for intellectual property theft.
Equities have been under pressure recently as the Trump administration ramps up a protectionist trade agenda. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced the implementation of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, raising concerns about a potential trade war.
Social media firms will remain at the forefront of investors' minds. Earlier this week, reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without the permission of its users.
On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg broke his silence on the matter, telling CNN that it had been "a major breach of trust, and I'm really sorry that this happened," expanding upon a statement he released onlin
Investors also digested the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy decision.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning on Feb. 9, 2018 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning on Feb. 9, 2018 in New York City.
As widely expected by the markets, the Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday and upgraded its economic outlook, saying that economic activity and jobs gains had been strong in recent months.
Market watchers expect the central bank to hike three times in 2018, while the Fed announced that it was increasing its rate-hike forecast for 2019. Following the announcement, Treasury yields rose with the benchmark 10-year yield briefly topping 2.9 percent, before paring some gains.
Switching to Thursday's session, central banking news remained on the agenda as the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged.
e earlier that day. Facebook shares dropped more than 2.5 percent in the premarket Thursday.
Overseas, stocks in Europe were under slight pressure, while Asia saw a mixed session Thursday.
—CNBC's Jeff Cox contributed to this report