Down in premarket, Wall Street in danger of logging a fifth straight losing week
Business
Down in premarket, Wall Street in danger of logging a fifth straight losing week
NEW YORK ( AP) - Wall Street was on track to open with losses early Friday, potentially jeopardizing markets’ first winning week in more than a month.
Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.3% lower before the bell. Nasdaq futures fell 0.4%.
FedEx tumbled 8% in premarket trading after the package delivery company said it expects revenue to be flat to slightly down year-over-year and lowered its per-share profit guidance.
Nike slid 6.5% after it forecast a steep decline in revenue in the current quarter, blaming geopolitical dynamics, new tariffs by the Trump administration and a less confident consumer.
Johnson & Johnson said Friday that it will invest more than $55 billion within the United States over the next four years, including four new manufacturing plants. Its shares were largely unaffected by the announcement.
Wall Street has been on a weekslong roller-coaster ride, with stock prices gyrating on uncertainty about what President Donald Trump’s trade war will do to the economy.
Some fear that an already inflation-weary consumer will pull back further on spending if prices jump because of tariffs, and companies are factoring that into their latest forecasts.
Markets haven’t finished a week with gains since the middle of last month. If things don’t turn around Friday, it will be their fifth straight losing week.
In European trading, Germany’s DAX slipped 0.7% at midday ahead of a vote by Germany lawmakers on a budget that will boost defense and infrastructure spending. France’s CAC 40 also lost 0.7%.
Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.5% after the Bank of England held its main interest rate steady a day earlier. The Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and China’s central bank all kept their rates on hold, keeping their options open while waiting to see what the coming weeks will bring in Trump’s trade war and other policies.
Shares of European airlines were under pressure after a fire knocked out power at London’s Heathrow Airport, forcing it to shut all day and disrupting global travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
In Asian trading, Chinese markets declined again, with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong tumbling 2.2% to 23,689.72 after China kept its key lending rates unchanged. Traders have been unloading technology shares following recent gains.
The Shanghai Composite index lost 1.3% to 3,364.83.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 closed 0.2% lower to 37,677.06 as the markets reopened after a holiday on Thursday. Japan reported its core inflation rate fell less than forecast, partly boosted by a surge in rice prices due to a shortage of supplies.
South Korea’s Kospi picked up 0.2% to 2,643.13, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.2%, closing at 7,931.20. In Taiwan, the Taiex lost 0.8%.
