Investing.com – Wall Street slipped on Friday, reversing some of the gains of its biggest one-day rise in two months as trade tensions failed to show signs of easing and political uncertainty in Italy and the U.K. added to concerns.
The Dow fell 115 points or 0.4% by 9:57 AM ET (13:57 GMT), while the S&P 500 lost 17 points or 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite was down 62 points or 0.8%.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday night that the U.S. government is holding off on its decision of whether or not to allow American companies to restart business with Chinese tech giant Huawei. The news suggested there's no immediate end in sight to the tit-for-tat retaliations on trade that started with President Trump's announcement last week of tariffs on all remaining U.S. imports from China.
Beijing halted its purchases of U.S. farming goods on Monday, while the U.S. officially declared China a currency manipulator after China pegged its yuan below 7 to the dollar.
Weak economic data from China also increased fears of a global slowdown, as factory gate prices fell in year-on-year terms for the first time in three years in July. U.S. factory prices also edged down in July.
In Europe, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called for a vote of no-confidence in the governing coalition, which could lead to snap elections.
Uber (NYSE:UBER) was down 8.4% after posting a record $5.2 billion loss as growth slowed in the second quarter. Farfetch (NYSE:FTCH) slumped 40.2% after losses widened in the second-quarter, while Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) declined 4.1% after forecasts for the third-quarter failed to top estimates and revenue dipped due to the lack of high-profile releases during the quarter.
Cybersecurity firm Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) fell 2.3%, as chipmaker Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) completed a deal to buy its enterprise security unit for $10.7 billion in cash. Broadcom was up 2.3% after the news.
Yelp (NYSE:YELP) jumped 10.8% after it beat Wall Street earnings estimates, shrugging off the news that its chief financial officer is leaving to join Eventbrite.
In commodities, crude oil jumped 3.4% to $54.34 a barrel while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.1% to 97.390. Gold futures were flat at $1,509.55 a troy ounce.