US STOCKS-Wall St futures plunge as China retaliates with fresh tariffs

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Futures down: S&P 500 2.94%, Nasdaq 100 3.22%, Dow 2.9%

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Jobs data due at 8:30 am

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Fed chair Jerome Powell's speech at 11:25 am

(Updates with fresh prices, quote, adds context)

By Sruthi Shankar and Pranav Kashyap

April 4 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock index futures plunged on Friday, indicating another round of selloff on Wall Street, after China imposed additional tariffs on all U.S. goods in response to the Trump administration's

sweeping levies

, escalating a global trade war.

China's finance ministry said it would impose additional tariffs of 34% on all U.S. goods from April 10 after President Donald Trump raised tariff barriers to their highest level in more than a century this week, leading to a plunge in world financial markets.

U.S.-listings of Chinese companies plunged in premarket trading. JD.com dropped 7.5%, while Alibaba fell 8.7% and Baidu shed 6.7%.

At 7:10 a.m., Nasdaq 100 E-minis was down 3.22%, marking a 20% decline from its peak. Dow e-minis dropped 2.9% and S&P 500 e-minis fell 2.94%.

The CBOE Volatility index , known as Wall Street's fear gauge, hit its highest level since August 2024.

"We're beginning to see the inevitable retaliation from the global trade partners of the United States. The risk is that this tips a recession scare into a full-blown recession," said Ben Laidler, head of equity strategy at Bradesco BBI.

Companies with exposure to China fell across the board, with mega-caps such as

Apple falling 4.8%. Nvidia

lost 3.9% and Amazon.com lost 5.4%.

The benchmark S&P 500 dropped 4.8% on Thursday, its largest one-day percentage decline since June 2020, after Trump imposed a 10% tariff on most imports into the United States and much higher levies on dozens of other countries.

The index closed at 5,396.52 points, a more than seven-month low.

The tariffs have fuelled expectations for a global economic downturn and sharp price hikes across sectors in the world's biggest consumer market.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled about 6% on Thursday, its biggest one-day drop since the height of the pandemic-fueled selloff in March 2020. The blue-chip Dow dropped 2.5% in the prior session and the index looked on course to confirm a correction, or a 10% drop from all-time highs.

Bank stocks in the United States dropped further on Friday, with the sector under pressure globally as investors anticipated more interest rate cuts from central banks and a hit to economic growth from tariffs.

Bank of America ( BAC ), JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) and Citigroup ( C/PN ) all fell around 5% each. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury notes was down to a six-month low of 3.95%.

The Labor Department report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show U.S. job growth slowed in March amid mass firings of public sector workers to slash federal government spending and reluctance by businesses to increase hiring because of import tariffs.

Nonfarm payrolls likely rose by 135,000 jobs in March after rising 151,000 in the prior month.

Focus will also be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at 11:25 a.m. ET for clues on the path of interest rates.

Traders continued to anticipate a more accommodative policy from the U.S. central bank, with money market futures pricing in cumulative rate cuts of 100 basis points by the end of this year, compared with about 75 bps a week earlier.

"Looking at cross-asset reactions, the market is actually pricing in the real risk of a recession here," Laidler said.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)