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U.S. equity futures moved lower in early Wednesday trading, while the dollar fell and Treasury bonds rallied, as investors reacted to a a twin set of big tech earnings while navigating headlines tied to renewed trade war risks between Washington and Beijing.Â
Alphabet (GOOGL) , one of the heaviest weights on both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, posted a disappointing set of fourth quarter earnings last night, and primed investors for a massive increase in capital spending as it continues to build on its AI and cloud strategy.Â
Shares in the Google parent were last marked 6.82% lower in heavy premarket volume, as were shares of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) , which forecast slowing sequential growth in its data center business.Â
On the trade war front, Apple (AAPL)  shares were also in the frame following a Bloomberg report that officials in China are set to accelerate an anti-trust probe into its App Store business.Â
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The latest tech broadside from China, which follows a decision by President Donald Trump to add an extra levy on inbound goods and a move by the United States Postal Service to suspend package deliveries from the world’s second-largest economy, has raised the prospects of a larger trade war and added a dimension of caution to global financial markets.
Related: Nvidia stock faces fresh China concerns
Benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yields rallied in overnight trading, taking their yield down to 4.476%, while 2-year notes were last pegged at 4.193%.
Gold prices, meanwhile, hit a fresh all-time high of $2,873.77 per ounce in overnight trading, while the U.S. dollar index was last marked 0.5% against a basket of its global currency peers and trading at 107.424.
A weaker dollar is supportive of gold prices. At the same time, US tariffs on China and Beijing’s retaliation are ominous for the global economy, increasing the appeal of safe-haven gold,” said Ricardo Evangelista, Senior Analyst at ActivTrades. “This demand is further reinforced by renewed uncertainty in the Middle East, following Donald Trump’s comments about taking over Gaza and displacing the Palestinian population.”
Stocks are also on the back foot, although most of the downside pressure is coming from big tech names, heading into a busy slate of corporate earnings and a key reading on private sector hiring from payroll processing group ADP at 8:15 am Eastern time.
Futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 1.92% for the year, are called 31 points lower at the start of trading, with the tech-focused Nasdaq looking at a larger 185 point pullback.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, is called 77 points lower, with around a third of that decline tied to Apple’s 2.7% pullback.Â
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In overseas markets, Europe’s Stoxx 600 slipped into negative territory in mid-day Frankfurt trading, but last marked 0.02% higher on the session, while Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.03% in London.
Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.09% lower in Tokyo, with auto shares in focus following Nissan Motor has decided to abandon merger plans with domestic rival Honda.
The broader MSCI ex-Japan index, meanwhile, was marked 0.47% higher into the close of trading despite broad declines for stocks in China and Hong Kong.
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