New jitters over the possibility of an escalation in the costly trade war between the U.S. and China pulled stocks broadly lower and more in Monday’s Stock Market Update.
The sell-off, which eased toward the end of the day Monday, came a day after President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on goods from China. Trump complained that the trade talks between the two countries are moving too slowly.
Investors have been expecting Washington and Beijing to resolve their damaging trade dispute, with the two sides set to meet this week in Washington. Hopes for an accord between the world’s two largest economies have contributed to the big run-up in stock prices in the U.S. and China so far this year. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit all-time highs last week.
Companies with heavy business interests in China bore the brunt of the selling. Chipmaker Micron Technology lost 2.8%
Banks also fell sharply. Health care and energy stocks rose.
DAILY STOCK MARKET UPDATE
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 fell 13 points, or 0.4%, to 2,932. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66 points, or 0.3%, to 26,438. The Nasdaq fell 40 points, or 0.5%, to 8,123.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10 year Treasury fell to 2.50%.
Major indexes in Europe and Asia also fell.
U.S.-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: The U.S. and China have raised tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of each other’s goods in their dispute over U.S. complaints about Chinese technology ambitions.
Trump turned up the heat Sunday when he threatened to raise tariffs on imports from China to 25% from 10%. He also said he would impose tariffs on another $325 billion in imports from China, covering everything the country ships annually to the United States.
Tariffs currently in place have already raised costs on goods for companies and consumers, and disrupted trade in goods from soybeans to medical equipment.
OTHER SECTORS HIT: Many sectors of the market posted declines Monday, including industrial companies, retailers and banks. Chipmakers and technology companies suffered the most.
Qualcomm, which gets 64.7% of its revenue from China, fell 1.1%. Broadcom slid 1.3% and Apple dropped 1.5%. Micron Technology, Advance Micro Devices fell more than 2% while Applied Materials was close at 1.9%. Industrial behemoth Caterpillar lost 1.6%, while Deere & Co. gave up 4%.
Wynn Resorts, with a host of casinos and hotels in Macau, gets about 75% of its revenue from China. Its stock tumbled 4%.
SAFER ENDEAVORS: Investors fled to safer holdings. Bond prices rose, sending yields lower, and safe-play stocks like utilities, real estate companies and makers of consumer products held up much better than the rest of the market.
AROUND THE WORLD: Chinese indexes plunged. The Shanghai Composite index closed 5.6% lower and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index sank 2.9%. European indexes fell broadly.
Shares of Chinese companies that trade in the U.S. also fell. J.D.com slid 4.4%, while internet search company Baidu dropped 1.5%.
Investors have been digesting mixed reports about the U.S.-China trade talks for months and have largely discounted concerns about a failure in negotiations. The broader market has been posting gains all year on encouraging economic growth and solid corporate earnings results.
“We see the weekend’s developments as a negative catalyst for the market, not only because of where investor expectations have been regarding the deal, but because of the downward earnings revisions that are likely to occur if the tariffs are expanded,” said Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital, in a note to clients.
BOEING SINKS: Boeing fell 1.2% after it disclosed that it did not warn airlines about a faulty safety alert until after one of its planes crashed.
The sensors malfunctioned during an October flight in Indonesia and another in March in Ethiopia, causing software on the plane to push the nose down. Pilots were unable to regain control of either plane, and both crashed, killing 346 people.
Boeing said Sunday that it discovered after airlines had been flying its 737 Max plane for several months that a safety alert in the cockpit was not working as intended, yet it didn’t disclose that fact to airlines or federal regulators until after one of the planes crashed.
BOOMIN’ OIL: Anadarko Petroleum Corp. rose 3.8% after Occidental revised its buyout offer to include more cash. Occidental is still offering $76 per share, but that now involves $59 per share in cash instead of $38.
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