US Stock Futures Suggest Significantly Weak Opening, Tracking Asian And European Markets As Ukraine Crisis Hangs In The Balance; Economic Data Could Have A Limited Influence On Markets

Markets around the world showed their concern about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine by pushing up oil and gold prices even as stocks slumped -- a trend that could be replicated in U.S. markets too Monday.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.77 percent while futures on the S&P 500 were down 0.94 percent and those on the Nasdaq were down 0.96 percent. On Friday, the Dow rose 0.3 percent while the S&P 500 climbed 0.28 percent while the Nasdaq fell 0.25 percent. Over last week, the Nasdaq had gained 0.8 percent and the S&P 500 had gained more than 1 percent while the Dow had climbed nearly 1.2 percent.

“Invariably, many will be buying these dips, but on an index level I would stand aside and wait for clarity to develop, as you know this market can go lower, very quickly, if geopolitics deteriorates and U.S. data doesn’t show any signs of a pickup,” Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, said in a note, according to MarketWatch.

Meanwhile, on the data front, numbers on personal income and spending in January are due to be released at 8:30 a.m. EST. The Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, for the manufacturing sector is due at 8:58 a.m. while the composite index from the ISM manufacturing survey for February is due at 10 a.m. Data on construction spending in January are also due at 10 a.m.

European markets were sharply down, worried over developments in Ukraine despite positive PMI data showing growth in the region’s factory sector is on track. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was trading down 1.7 percent and the FTSE 100 was down 1.36 percent. Germany’s DAX-30 plunged to trade down 2.5 percent while France's CAC-40 was trading down 1.99 percent.

In Asia too stocks were mostly weak, with Japan’s Nikkei-225 falling 1.27 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.38 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.47 percent while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.92 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.77 percent and India’s BSE Sensex was down 0.82 percent.