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Wall Street drops after Trump threatens further China tariffs

Published 09/07/2018, 03:32 PM
Updated 09/07/2018, 03:32 PM
© Reuters. Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York

© Reuters. Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York

By April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's major indexes moved lower on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had tariffs ready to impose on an additional $267 billion worth of Chinese imports, though stocks pared losses late in the afternoon.

Trump's remarks came after the comment period regarding another round of tariffs, on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, ended on Thursday night. Earlier, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Trump would not make any decisions on those tariffs until officials evaluated public comments.

Additionally, Trump said the United States and Japan have begun trade discussions.

The S&P 500 and the Dow had opened lower as the U.S. Labor Department's employment report showed accelerating job growth and a surge in wage growth. Though the report indicated a strong economy, it raised concerns among investors regarding inflation and the Federal Reserve's plans for increasing interest rates.

After Trump's comments on tariffs, both indexes added to losses, while the Nasdaq, which had been boosted by a recovery in tech stocks, gave up its gains. The three indexes recovered some of their losses later in the session.

Several investors said the unsettled stance on trade contributed to U.S. stocks' meandering path on Friday.

"It's not that we have good policies or bad policies; it's that we don't know what the policy is," said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. "It's very fickle."

"It's kind of a tempest in a teapot, more than anything," said Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee. "I wouldn't be surprised to see us end the day flat."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 55.27 points, or 0.21 percent, to 25,940.6, the S&P 500 lost 2.25 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,875.8 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.01 points, or 0.04 percent, to 7,919.72.

Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower. Consumer discretionary, health care and financial stocks posted modest gains.

The S&P 500 technology index was trading flat after being shellacked in the last two sessions over concerns regarding the possibility of increased regulation of social media companies.

Shares of chipmaker Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Inc rose 7.5 percent after a strong current-quarter revenue forecast.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc shares slid 6.4 percent following reports of two executives leaving the company and on mounting investor concerns about Chief Executive Elon Musk's behavior after he smoked marijuana on a live Web show.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.26-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.24-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

© Reuters. Traders work on the floor of the NYSE in New York

The S&P 500 posted 36 new 52-week highs and 16 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 95 new highs and 62 new lows.

Latest comments

4 times bankruptcy do business guys...playing around with politic
Basically, we are standing outside a room in which Trump is in a straightjacket fighting with himself. He is so busy fighting with himself, (inner demons, inner angry birds, you name it,) that what comes out of his mouth is all related to him and those immediately around him.. . It's some kind of mental unease that could be resolved or at least managed with daily yoga where he truly works all his pain through his body and comes out of the session floating on clouds and ready to let his mind do a good job. But can you in principle make good decisions if you feed on junk food? . . They say, "You are what you eat".  Good luck.. . I did, by the way, recommend a "School of Presidents" to the Harvard School of Business but have not yet heard from them. . I feel a bit like the guy who kept writing letters to the SEC, every year since 1999 to warn of MADOFF's PONZI scheme, but he like I, fell on deaf ears until it was too late. . . Hope Americans can AWAKEN FASTER !!
On Tariffs: https://theconversation.com/economic-history-shows-why-trumps-america-first-tariff-policy-is-so-dangerous-92715
TRUMP NEEDS TO GO!! . . He came surrounded by a trail of chaos, he is causing chaos, and he will be leaving surrounded by a trail of chaos. . . Trump denies the existence of global warming. How dumb can you get? You saw how California was burning? And here in BC, Canada fires have been burning as a result of global warming, worse than last year: . . I PUT ALL AMERICAN PURCHASES ON HOLD and I'm not spending a dime on anything American UNTIL POTUS TRUMP IS booted. == . . TRUMP IS A DISRUPTING FORCE, a time waster, THAT MAKES THE FREE WORLD WEAKER. . . He should wake up and realize the bigger fight: . It's not narcissist Trump and America against the world:. . It is the free world against the axis of evil as represented by Communism, Repressive regimes like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, and dictators like Maduro and Putin.. . If Trump is re-elected he has the potential to turn America into a dictatorship. --  . . Time is ticking for our free world.. . Let's resolve not to re-elect Trump. Good Luck.
Have you noticed , HOW THE YOUNG BEAR IS TEASING THE old bull. ?
oh libs.. learn to trade
Volumes are higher.. Woe You Bull.
shortly before election in America Trump should do some good for his voters as many of them own shares. Now with the stock going down and down because of his disasterous economic politics the conservatis will lose. That will be a disaster for him (which I hope).
unless u want to buy all electronic with is amarican made or whatever in wallmart now double or tripples.. china product 1 dollar, american product 5 dollar.. zzzzz
Remove TRUMP from office, not fit to be President of any country.  He and his close friends are making money by damaging world fabric.
Whayever check your 401k.
You even legal
 Your 401k being up is not because of Trump. It took 8 years of printing money under Obama for the economy to come to full steam now and it would take another 2 years at least for Trump's net tax reform to take any real effect unless first destroyed by his tariff policies. == The tariffs act of 1930 actually prolonged the great depression because all surrounding trading partners raised their own tariffs and caused a stalling of world trade: same as will happen under Trump: Just watch it happen in slo-mo.
Past few days, Japan has typhoon and earthquake resulting in casualty list not seen for decades, and Trump begin to threaten Japan with trade war yesterday. if US are to have a 911 incident again right now with a high American casualty list, and other countries threaten US with a trade war, what will US think? this Trump is downright insensitive. Just thinking of himself.
impeach trump. 25th ammendment now
trump needs to be removed from office
I rather Trump stay until economy messes up so Trump supporters can't prove us wrong
 Our free world can not afford another minute of a narcissist who is as insensitive to women (our holy source of life) and others around him as Tan Meng observed. All narcissists are truly insensitive because they focus on themselves and are OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY: they can only think about themselves and they don't have the bigger picture because the bigger picture requires you to see far. ====To see the bigger picture you need serious brain power. And for someone with serious brain power, the word "anonymous" pronounced is a cake walk. It was important for Trump to make tax law reform favoring the rich. How stupid can you get doing that?
Posted right before negative tariff news.
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