Wall Street Might Open Broadly Lower

(RTTNews) - Early cues from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open broadly down on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be meeting President Donald Trump at the White House today to push for additional long-range weapons.

The ongoing U.S. government shutdown and escalating Sino-U.S. trade tensions after reports that the U.S. might impose up to 500 percent tariff on China in response to curtailing supply of critical minerals.

Meanwhile, China said the U.S. had "deliberately provoked" over the rare earths' restrictions.

Gold scaled a new peak at $4,379.29 an ounce during Asian trading on Friday, while oil hovered near five-month lows .

As of 8.15 am ET, the Dow futures were adding 84.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were down 2.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were sliding 45.25 points.

The U.S. major averages climbed off their worst levels going into the end on Thursday but remained in the red. The Dow slid 301.07 points or 0.7 percent to 45952.24, the S&P 500 declined 41.99 points or 0.6 percent to 6,629.07 and the Nasdaq fell 107.54 points or 0.5 percent to 22,562.54.

On the economic front, the Housing Starts and Permits for September will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 1.315 million, while it was up $1.307 million in August.

The Imports and Export Prices for September will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for decline of 0.2 percent, while it was up 0.3 percent in the prior month.

The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be published at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 740, while the U.S. rig count was 547.

Treasury International Capital for August will be revealed at 4.00 pm ET. In the prior month, the Net long-Term Securities Transactions were $49.2 billion.

Asian stocks declined on Friday. China's Shanghai Composite index slumped 1.95 percent to 3,839.76 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plummeted 2.48 percent to 25,247.10.

Japanese markets tumbled. The Nikkei average fell 1.44 percent to 47,582.15 while the broader Topix index settled 1.03 percent lower at 3,170.44.

Australian markets fell notably. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.81 percent to 8,995.30. The broader All Ordinaries index closed down 0.88 percent at 9,293.20.