U.S. stock futures fall after North Korea missile report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures opened sharply lower on Monday for the overnight session after the Japanese and South Korean governments said North Korea had fired a missile that passed over northern Japan early on Tuesday.

S&P 500 e-minis were down 0.7 percent, Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 0.8 percent and Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were down 0.6 percent.

"The market is sensitive to this (North Korea)," said Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Co, who said the concern was that the situation would go "on and on".

The S&P 500 and Dow had earlier ended little changed, with energy and bank shares lower as Tropical Storm Harvey crippled the U.S. energy hub in Texas, while tech and healthcare gave a light boost to the Nasdaq.

 

(Reporting by Megan Davies; Editing by James Dalgleish)