U.S. stock futures point to slightly higher Wall Street opening despite China tariffs hike

U.S. stock futures all moved into positive territory Friday after initially being in the red following China’s announcement that it is raising tariffs on U.S. imports to 125% from 84%, the latest escalation in the trade war between the two countries. Beijing’s move takes effect Saturday and follows President Trump hiking U.S. levies on imports from China to 145%.

As of 7:40 a.m. EDT, S&P 500 futures were up 0.25%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures had climbed 0.19% and futures for the Nasdaq composite were 0.22% higher, Yahoo Finance reported. But they were headed lower again.

Global shares wobbled Friday after Beijing’s announcement, with Japan and some European markets slipping while others stood firm.

The deepening worries over the trade war caused Tokyo’s benchmark to initially fall more than 5%. It later regained some ground, closing 3% lower at 33,585.58.

Then China made its announcement. The 125% matches the level of U.S. tariffs not including an earlier 20% imposed weeks ago.

“The U.S. alternately raising abnormally high tariffs on China has become a numbers game, which has no practical economic significance, and will become a joke in the history of the world economy,” a Finance Ministry spokesman said in a statement announcing the new tariffs. “However, if the US insists on continuing to substantially infringe on China’s interests, China will resolutely counter and fight to the end.”

Early Friday, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.40%. The markets’ swings have hit the bond market and Treasury yields have jumped as bond prices fell on heavy selling.

The bond market has tended to limit economic policies that investors deem imprudent, helping to topple the United Kingdom’s Liz Truss in 2022, for example, whose 49 days made her Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister.

In announcing a 90-day delay in implementing his higher tariffs against dozens of countries, Mr. Trump mentioned that the bond market was a bit “queasy.”

The 10-year Treasury yield shot up to nearly 4.50% Wednesday morning from just 4.01% at the end of last week. It calmed somewhat following Mr. Trump’s U-turn Wednesday on tariffs, dropping all the way back to 4.30% shortly after the release of a better-than-expected report on inflation Thursday morning.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX shed 1% to 20,353.16, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.4% to 7,100.90. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.5% as the government reported the economy, the world’s sixth largest, enjoyed a growth spurt in February, the month before Mr. Trump started to roll out tariffs on imported goods. It expanded 0.5% in February, ahead of market expectations for a more modest increase of 0.2%.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5% to 2,432.72, while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.8% to 7,646.50.

China markets rallied after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Beijing announced plans for Xi to visit Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia.

China has been seeking to join forces with other countries in apparent hopes of forming a united front against Mr. Trump. The world’s second-largest economy is also ramping up its own countermeasures to the U.S. president’s tariffs.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng picked up 1.1% to 20,914.69 and the Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.5% to 3,238.23.

Taiwan’s Taiex gained 2.8% as investors anticipated that orders for the island’s high-tech products will surge as trade between the U.S. and the Chinese mainland dwindles.

Wall Street swooned on Thursday. The S&P 500 tumbled 3.5%, slicing into Wednesday’s surge of 9.5% following Mr. Trump’s decision to pause many of his tariffs worldwide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.5% and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 4.3%.

Investors are viewing Mr. Trump’s decision to delay higher tariffs for most countries for 90 days as a ploy, not a pivot, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“That’s the market hitting the brakes, hard. The sugar high from Trump’s tariff pause is fading fast,” he wrote.

Losses for U.S. stocks accelerated after the White House clarified that the United States will tax Chinese imports at 145%, not the 125% rate that Mr. Trump had written about in his posting on Truth Social Wednesday, once other previously announced tariffs were included. The drop for the S&P 500 exceeded 6% at one point.