US pre-open: Futures point lower as trade tensions continue to drag on sentiment

Wall Street futures were pointing to losses at the open on Monday, with fears that ongoing tensions between the US and China could lead to a global recession.

As of 1200 BST, Dow futures were down 0.75%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures had the indices opening 0.76% and 0.84% lower, respectively.

Futures were headed lower early in the morning Stateside after Hong Kong International Airport cancelled all departures for the day on the back of serious disruptions linked to the intensifying protests.

Protests across Hong Kong, which began all the way back in June, were turning into the Asian financial hub's most serious crisis in years, turning into one of the key challenges for Chinese leader Xi Jinping since becoming the nation's leader back in 2012.

Outside of Hong Kong, investors were still likely to be focused on trade tensions between the Washington and Beijing after the People's Bank of China set its daily midpoint for yuan trading at 7.0211 per US dollar - below Friday's fix, but ahead of market expectations.

The yuan depreciated past the 7.0-per-dollar level during the previous week for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2008, prompting the US Treasury Department to brand China as a currency manipulator.

Oanda's Craig Elam said: "Everyone is focused on the various political issues this week, despite there being some notable economic releases that will obviously command some attention.

"None of these will be released today and there's a few weeks now until the next meeting of a major central bank so it could go a little quiet on that front, especially with various officials no doubt on their holiday's."

On the data front, the US Federal Budget for July was scheduled to be published at 1900 BST, while in corporate news, Bloom Energy and Tencent Music were both expected to post results.