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Updates with results from PepsiCo, Merck, Pfizer

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were subdued on Tuesday as investors avoided risky assets after China struck back with retaliatory tariffs in response to new U.S. restrictions against Chinese goods.

Minutes after U.S. President Donald Trump's 10% tariff on Chinese goods kicked in at 12:01 a.m. ET (0501 GMT), China's finance ministry announced levies on some U.S. imports.

Beijing's limited reply to Trump's imposition of a 10% tariff on all imports from China underscored its attempts to engage the U.S. president in talks and avert an outright trade war between the world's two largest economies.

Trump had also imposed a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada over the weekend, but agreed to a 30-day pause in the levies on Monday, in return for border and crime concessions from both countries.

The last-minute change helped the three major U.S. stock indexes pare some of the heavy losses suffered earlier on Monday and closed trading well off session lows.

"The events of the last few days have once again shown that anything can be expected of Trump," Commerzbank economists said in a note. "There is still a high risk that significant tariffs and disruptions in international trade will ultimately occur."

The S&P 500 .SPX came as close as eight points to all-time highs on Friday before selling off, as the tariffs rattled global markets.

Three Fed officials warned on Monday that trade tariffs carried inflation risks, with one arguing that uncertainty over the outlook for prices called for slower interest-rate cuts than otherwise.

Traders are pricing in no interest-rate action from the U.S. Federal Reserve before June, with bets on a cut in June at 62%, according to CME's FedWatch.

Comments from three Fed leaders including Atlanta's Raphael Bostic are expected through the day.

In economic data, a December job openings reading is due at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday, with the all-important January nonfarm payrolls report slated for Friday.

At 07:24 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were down 93 points, or 0.21%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 3.25 points, or 0.05%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 20.5 points, or 0.1%.

Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O, gaming firm Electronic Arts EA.O and chipmaker AMD AMD.O are scheduled to report quarterly earnings after markets close on Tuesday.

Among premarket movers, biotechnology firm Illumina ILMN.O dropped 4.7%, while PVH Corp PVH.N, the holding company for brands including Calvin Klein, fell 5.2% after China placed the firms in its "unreliable entity list".

PepsiCo PEP.O fell 2.3% after it forecast annual profit below expectations and missed quarterly revenue estimates, as the Frito-Lay maker faces weakening demand for its sodas and snacks in the United States, its largest market.

Spotify SPOT.N gained 8.7% after it forecast first-quarter profit above market expectations, while Palantir PLTR.O jumped 21.8% after the data analytics company forecast first-quarter and annual revenue above Wall Street estimates.

Merck MRK.N fell 8.1% after the drugmaker said it would pause shipments of Gardasil to China through at least mid-year, as continued weak demand for the HPV vaccine there is expected to hurt the company's 2025 revenue.

Pfizer PFE.N rose 1.8% after it beat estimates for fourth-quarter profit, helped by strong sales of its heart-disease drug and a smaller-than-feared drop in COVID-19 vaccine sales.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Pooja Desai)

((Shashwat.Chauhan@thomsonreuters.com;))