Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures dipped on Thursday as investors avoided risky bets after another bout of tariff threats from President Donald Trump, while heavyweight retailer Walmart plunged on downbeat fiscal 2026 sales forecast.
Walmart (WMT.N), slid 8.3% in premarket trading after the world's largest retailer forecast sales for the fiscal year ending January 2026 below estimates, as it anticipates inflation-weary consumers to pull back after several quarters of solid growth.
It dragged down other major retailers such as Target (TGT.N),Costco Wholesale (COST.O), and Dollar General (DG.N),which fell between 1.7% and 2.8%.
Trump said on Wednesday he will announce fresh tariffs over the next month or sooner, adding lumber and forest products to previously announced plans involving duties on imported cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Since returning to office four weeks ago, Trump has imposed an additional 10% tariff on all imports from China. He also announced, and then delayed for a month 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.
Last week, he unveiled plans to slap reciprocal tariffs on all countries that have tariffs on U.S. goods.
Traditional safe-haven assets gold and the Japanese yen trended higher, while Treasury yields - which move inversely to bond prices - edged lower.
Separately, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's January policy meeting showed on Wednesday that Trump's initial policy proposals raised inflationary concerns at the central bank.
Policymakers agreed they should hold interest rates steady until it was clear that inflation, largely stalled since the middle of 2024, would dependably fall to the central bank's 2% target.
The S&P 500 (.SPX), crawled to a record closing high for the second time this week on Wednesday, as markets took stock of the Fed's meeting minutes and Trump's directives.
"Trump continues to announce new policy plans on many fronts, but broader financial market moves in response to such plans have not been huge lately," analysts at Nordea wrote in a note.
"Given all the uncertainties involved, it is too early to draw definite conclusions on the outcomes."
A weekly jobless claims reading and comments from at least four Fed officials, including Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, are due later in the day.
At 07:26 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 136 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 19.25 points, or 0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 63.5 points, or 0.29%.
Palantir Technologies (PLTR.O),which provides governments with services such as software that visualizes army positions, fell 4.5% after the Pentagon said on Wednesday it was looking at potential budget cuts for the fiscal year 2026.
U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group advanced 9.8% after the Chinese e-commerce firm topped expectations for third-quarter revenue.
Hasbro (HAS.O), advanced 2.3% after the toymaker beat quarterly profit and revenue estimates.
Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shinjini Ganguli
