U.S. Stock Futures Fall After U.S. Holds Off On Huawei Licenses

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock index futures fell on a report that the White House is holding off on a decision about licenses for U.S. companies to restart business with Huawei Technologies Co.

S&P 500 Index futures contracts expiring in September dropped 0.2% as of 8:48 a.m. in Tokyo, after sliding as much as 0.8%. Contracts declined 0.3% on the Nasdaq 100 and fell 0.4% on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The U.S. government’s move came after Beijing said it was halting purchases of U.S. farming goods, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in late June that some restrictions on Huawei would be loosened. But that commitment was contingent upon China increasing its purchases from American farmers, which Trump has complained the country hasn’t done.

Tensions between the U.S. and China escalated further in the past week after Trump said he would impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports and his Treasury Department labeled China a currency manipulator.

“We are by no means out of the woods with regard to further trade angst between China and the U.S., and this development probably goes some way to confirming that view,” said Nick Twidale, director and co-founder of X-Chainge, a financial technology platform. “We have more potential for some significant downside moves as investor concern increases with each new development.”

On Thursday, the S&P 500 Index posted its biggest advance in two months, building on gains in Europe and Asia and erasing its loss for the week. A surge in technology companies pushed the Nasdaq Composite up more than 2%.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jackie Edwards in Sydney at jedwards160@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lianting Tu at ltu4@bloomberg.net, Naoto Hosoda, Kurt Schussler

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