Investing.com – Wall Street opened lower on Monday, as a fall in Chinese exports increased trade war concerns.
The S&P 500 fell 24 points or 0.94% as of 9:33 AM ET (14:33 GMT), while the Dow decreased 215 points, or 0.9%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 75 points, or 1.08%.
Chinese exports unexpectedly fell by the most in two years in December, while imports also declined. The numbers increased worry that the U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods are impacting its economy.
"Investors are once again on the back foot in relation to this and they do not feel comfortable about the risk on trade,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK Ltd in London.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co (NYSE:PCG) slumped 45% after its CEO stepped down and announced that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 29. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) dipped 1.8%, while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was down 1.3%. Semiconductor companies were also lower, with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) dipping %.
Elsewhere, Gannett Co Inc (NYSE:GCI) rose 17.7% after The Wall Street Journal reported that its shareholder Digital First Media was planning to push the company to put itself up for sale and would also make an offer at $12 per share. Shares of Citigroup (NYSE:C) rose 1% despite the bank reporting lower-than-expected revenue for the fourth quarter, as market volatility hit its fixed income division.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,292.75 a troy ounce and crude oil decreased 0.9% to $51.11 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched down 0.04% to 95.22.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.