US stock index futures fell on Sunday amid news of North Korea’s firing of four ballistic missiles and President Donald Trump’s accusation that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped him. US stocks have climbed to all-time records, with the Dow piercing the 21,000 mark last week for the first time and the benchmark S&P 500 rising 11.4 percent since Trump’s election last November. Investors are upbeat about Trump’s economic agenda, including tax reform and infrastructure spending, but wary of stock valuations that are historically expensive. The S&P 500 is trading at about 18 times forward earnings estimates against the long-term average of 15 times, according to Thomson Reuters data.

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The former top US intelligence official rejected Trump’s accusation that Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 presidential campaign, even as the White House urged Congress to investigate the allegation, which Trump made on Saturday without offering supporting evidence.

North Korea fired four ballistic missiles, three of which landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, the latest in a series of provocative tests by the reclusive state.

S&P 500 e-minis were down 7.75 points, or 0.33 percent, with 39,400 contracts changing hands, as of Sunday evening. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 14 points, or 0.26 percent, in volume of 7,210 contracts. Dow e-minis were down 57 points, or 0.27 percent, with 7,035 contracts changing hands. US 10-year Treasury futures were last up about 0.14 percent in electronic trading.</s>A spokesman for Barack Obama has rejected claims from US President Donald Trump that the former president had wiretapped him in October during the late stages of the presidential election campaign.

"Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false," Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement on Saturday.

Trump had suggested Obama had improperly tapped his phones, without citing evidence, in a series of tweets on Saturday morning.

"How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!," Trump said in a series of tweets.

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

"I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!"

Lewis also said that "a cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice."

The statement raised the possibility that a wiretap of the Trump campaign could have been ordered by Justice Department officials.

The White House did not respond to a request to elaborate on Trump's accusations.

A Trump spokeswoman said the Republican president is "having meetings, making phone calls and hitting balls" at his golf course in West Palm Beach.

Earlier, former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes strongly denied Trump's allegations.

"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," Rhodes wrote on Twitter.

In one of the Tweets, Trump said the alleged wiretapping took place in his Trump Tower office and apartment building in New York, but there was "nothing found."

Trump's administration has come under pressure from Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional investigations into contacts between some members of his campaign team and Russian officials during his campaign.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi ridiculed Trump's assertions. "The Deflector-in-Chief is at it again. An investigation by an independent commission is the only answer," she wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Under US law, a federal court would have to have found probable cause that the target of the surveillance is an "agent of a foreign power" in order to approve a warrant authorising electronic surveillance of Trump Tower.</s>During the 2016 campaign, the federal authorities began an investigation into links between Trump associates and the Russian government, an issue that continues to dog Mr. Trump. His aides declined to clarify on Saturday whether the president’s allegations were based on briefings from intelligence or law enforcement officials — which could mean that Mr. Trump was revealing previously unknown details about the investigation — or on something else, like a news report.

But a senior White House official said that Donald F. McGahn II, the president’s chief counsel, was working to secure access to what Mr. McGahn believed to be an order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing some form of surveillance related to Mr. Trump and his associates.

The official offered no evidence to support the notion that such an order exists. It would be a highly unusual breach of the Justice Department’s traditional independence on law enforcement matters for the White House to order it to turn over such an investigative document.

Any request for information from a top White House official about a continuing investigation would be a stunning departure from protocols intended to insulate the F.B.I. from political pressure. It would be even more surprising for the White House to seek information about a case directly involving the president or his advisers, as does the case involving the Russia contacts.

After the White House received heavy criticism for the suggestion that Mr. McGahn would breach Justice Department independence, a different administration official said that the earlier statements about his efforts had been overstated. The official said the counsel’s office was looking at whether there was any legal possibility of gleaning information without impeding or interfering with an investigation. The counsel’s office does not know whether an investigation exists, the official said.</s>President Donald Trump has taken his early morning Twitter rants to a new, paranoid level.

On Saturday morning, Trump sent out a series of tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping phones inside the Trump Tower, where Trump lived as a private citizen before the election. Trump cited no evidence for his accusations.

Trump's tweet storm addressed the Russian ambassador scandal embroiling his administration, particularly Attorney General Jeff Sessions. According to reports in the Washington Post, Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice during the presidential campaign. One of the meetings took place during Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. election.

First, Trump tweeted that Sessions met the ambassador during a meeting set up by Obama along with 100 other ambassadors.

Trump then said he "just found out" that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower prior to the election. He then blamed Obama of McCarthyism.

He then said Kislyak visited Obama's White House 22 times, four times in the last year.

"Is it legal for a sitting president to be 'wiretapping' a race for president prior to an election?" Trump wrote. "A new low!"

"I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to election!"

He then says this is a "Nixon/Watergate" level crime.

It is unclear what sparked Trump's tweets. The Hill reported that on Friday, Breitbart News (which was formally run by Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon) reported on by a conservative radio host that Obama used "police state tactics" in a "silent coup" against the incoming Trump administration.

Trump has already lost his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who resigned after it was discovered that he conversed with the Russian ambassador concerning sanctions Obama put on Russia for their alleged hacking of the election.

Trump is no stranger to lobbing unfounded grenades at Obama. Trump's origin story and ascendance to the presidency lies in his starting the Obama "birther" movement, which claimed Obama was not a citizen and wanted him to produce a long-form birth certificate.</s>WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes says President Donald Trump’s allegations that President Barack Obama’s administration wiretapped Trump Tower last year will become part of his panel’s investigation.

President Trump has offered no evidence or details to support his claim, and President Obama’s spokesman has denied it.

The California Republican says in a statement his committee “will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party’s campaign officials or surrogates.”

The committee was already investigating Russian interference in the presidential election.

Without offering evidence, President Trump claimed in a series of Saturday, March 4th tweets that former President Barack Obama had telephones at Trump Tower wiretapped.</s>President Donald Trump is accusing former President Barack Obama of having Trump's telephones "wire tapped" during last year's election, but Trump isn't offering any evidence or saying what prompted the allegation. Trump says in a series of tweets that he "just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower."

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Plain Dealer.</s>If you picked “4” in your office pool about how many days it would take normal-speech-delivering President Donald Trump to revert back to Twitter Tirade Trump, congratulations! Trump tweeted early Saturday morning that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the presidential race. He did not offer any details, but his latest tweet-nado followed a Fox News segment in which these claims were unveiled. And the morning TV news cycle was set:

On Friday, FNC’s Brett Baier asked House Speaker Paul Ryan if he was concerned “that the Obama Administration may have been surveilling members of the Trump campaign in a pretty detailed investigation during the election?”

To which Ryan replied: “I don’t think that’s the case.”

Saturday morning, Fox New Channel’s Fox & Friends foamed over about Trump’s “major accusation” against Obama, calling it “some really serious stuff,” though there was one question as to whether Trump could back it up.

“If this is true, this is absolutely outrageous!” Trump supporter Rep. Sean Duffy fumed. “Do we even have an American administration tap into a campaign of the other party, and then gather information? And now, only six weeks into this presidency we find out this tapping has been going on. I think we need an investigation into Barack Obama, into his prior administration to find out what they were doing looking at Donald Trump and why this information hasn’t been disclosed.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat repping California, however, noted, “First, Presidents do not wiretap anyone. These are pursued by the Department of Justice in accordance with the FBI, and signed off on by a judge.”

“But President Trump is not credible when it comes to talking about Russia,” Swalwell continued. “Each passing day we learn about more Trump Russia ties… At this point we don’t know what’s true and what’s not. I’m on the Intelligence Committee and our committee is pursuing its own investigation into prior Trump team ties with Russia. But at this point I think this is just the president up early and doing his routine tweeting.

Caught up in his morning anti-Obama tweet-nado, Trump also had defended Attorney General Jeff Sessions:</s>Donald Trump has accused Barack Obama of tapping his telephones at Trump Tower in October, before he was elected US president.

Mr Trump unleashed a flurry of tweets at about 6.30am (11.30am GMT) Saturday morning accusing the former president of using wire taps to spy on him at his New York base.

"Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!," he tweeted.

He president compared the alleged surveillance to Watergate, the 1970s scandal that brought down president Richard Nixon: "How low has President Obama gone to tapp (SIC) my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!"</s>Donald Trump is accusing former President Barack Obama and his administration of wiretapping his Manhattan home and office before the November 2016 elections.</s>Donald Trump alleged in a tweet storm early Saturday that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower before his election victory.

Trump did not provide any evidence for the claims, which followed an interview on Fox News where the allegations came up.

"Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" Trump wrote as part of a series of tweets Saturday morning.

NBC News reached out to former Obama administration officials and the White House for comment and clarification but had not heard back.

On Friday, Fox's Brett Baier asked House Speaker Paul Ryan whether he was concerned "that the Obama Administration may have been surveilling members of the Trump campaign in a pretty detailed investigation during the election?"

Ryan responded by saying: "I don't think that's the case."

Trump's campaign offices were located in Trump Tower in Manhattan. The Trump family occupies a multi-floor penthouse in the building which also hosts retail businesses, commercial office space and other private residences.

Trump, who is spending the weekend at his Mar-o-Lago resort in Florida, frequently tweets about topics that have appeared in conservative media outlets.

There have been reports that communications between Trump associates and Russians were picked up by intelligence agencies during the campaign as part of routine surveillance of the Russians. Trump and his aides have denied there were any improper contacts.

Trump's allegations about Obama were part of a flurry of early morning tweets that also defended Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Sessions is under fire for not disclosing during his confirmation hearing that he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Sessions was a senator at the time and an adviser to the Trump campaign.

"The first meeting Jeff Sessions had with the Russian Amb was set up by the Obama Administration under education program for 100 Ambs......"

"The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone."

News of the meetings drew fire from critics who said Sessions had misled the Judiciary Committee in his January confirmation hearings.

Sessions recused himself from overseeing any Justice Department investigation into alleged Russian election interference earlier this week.

On Friday he said he would submit amended testimony and respond to senators' questions over his contacts with Russia's ambassador.

Sessions faces calls for his resignation over the issue but Trump has backed his man saying he did nothing wrong.

In recent days, Trump has sought to fight back over allegations about the communications between members of his team and Russian officials during and after the campaign.

He lashed out at Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi Friday, tweeting a picture of Schumer meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2003.

He also retweeted a Politico article which revealed Pelosi had met the Russian ambassador in 2010 despite her claims to the contrary.

Trump said both Democrats should also be investigated for their ties to Russia.

Schumer responded on the social network: "Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in '03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you & your team?"

On Feb. 13, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned just after the Washington Post first reported that the Justice Department had informed the White House that Flynn could be subject to blackmail.

Trump acknowledged in January that Russia had a role in a series of cyberattacks on America but says it didn't impact the election.
U.S. President Donald Trump accuses former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower the month before the 2016 presidential election but offers no evidence to support his claim. A spokesman for President Obama rejects these claims.