U.S. stocks poised for negative opening
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a lower for Wall Street on Friday after markets finished the previous session mostly mixed.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were indicated 150 points, or 0.43% lower to 34,668.
S&P 500 futures fell 19.25 points, or 0.44% to 4,382.25 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 lost 43 points, or 0.29% to 14,885.
On Thursday, the Dow dropped 66.57 points or 0.19% to finish at 34,894.12 as traders continued to digest minutes of the July Federal Reserve meeting, which suggested the central bank could start scaling down its pace of asset purchase later this year.
The S&P 500 advanced 5.53 points or 0.13% to close at 4405.80, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 15.87 points or 0.11% to 14541.79.
FTC refiles Facebook antitrust suit
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a new antitrust case against Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) after a federal judge threw out its initial complaint earlier this year.
In the new suit filed Thursday, the FTC accused Facebook of breaking antitrust rules by buying WhatsApp and Instagram to eliminate them as rivals.
“Facebook lacked the business acumen and technical talent to survive the transition to mobile. After failing to compete with new innovators, Facebook illegally bought or buried them when their popularity became an existential threat,” the filing said.
In June, a federal judge quashed antitrust lawsuits that the FTC and 48 state attorneys general brought against the social media giant amid growing attempts by state and federal regulators to limit the power held by big tech companies.
Facebook has until October 4 to respond to the new suit.
Chinese tech stocks under pressure on Beijing data privacy law
Meanwhile, Chinese tech stocks tumbled Thursday after Beijing officials passed a strict data privacy law, raising new concerns over the intensity of the country’s recent regulatory clampdown.
China said it has passed a law to regulate how tech companies process personal data. The Personal Information Protection Law will go into effect on Nov. 1 but there were few further details.
Shares of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) plunged $11.80, or 6.85% to close at $160.55 on Thursday. JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) fell 5.10% to end at $62.19 a share. Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI) and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) lost 6.03% and 3.94%, respectively.
