Investing.com – Wall Street fell sharply at the opening on Monday on heightened fears for the tech sector due to the White House’s blacklisting of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.
The S&P 500 fell 23 points or 0.8% by 9:41 AM ET (13:41 GMT), while the Dow lost 175 points or 0.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite suffered most, losing 130 points or 1.7%.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) suspended licensing of Android software to Huawei’s smartphones due to the White House ban, while Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and other semiconductor companies have stopped hardware shipments.
Semiconductors slumped after the open, with Micron (NASDAQ:MU) falling 3.5%, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) down 2.1% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) slipping 1.8%.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was down 4% after HSBC warned that higher prices for the iPhone creator's products due to an increase in Chinese tariffs could have "dire consequences" on demand. Unconfirmed reports out of China indicated that Beijing may target Apple when it unveils its retaliatory measures.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) lost 6.5% amid concerns over demand for its Model 3, along with financial sustainability and its exposure to Chinese markets in light of recent trade tariff battles with the U.S.
Elsewhere, Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) skyrocketed 26% after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said he would recommend approval of its merger with T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS). The merger is now likely to be approved. T-Mobile jumped 7%, while its parent Deutsche Telekom (OTC:DTEGY) rose 0.6%. The ADRs of Sprint's parent Softbank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBF) rose 3.5%
In other news, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) was down 0.2% on news that it is eliminating 7,000 jobs worldwide, including 2,300 in North America.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,276.95 a troy ounce, while crude oil inched up to $62.94. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, dipped 0.1% to 97.752.