Investing.com - Wall Street fell Thursday as weak numbers from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and worry over trade relations between the U.S. and China weighed on investors.
The S&P 500 fell 8 points, or 0.33%, as of 9:30 AM ET (14:30 GMT), while the Dow decreased 113 points, or 0.47%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 22 points, or 0.32%.
U.S. lawmakers introduced bills on Wednesday that would ban the sale of U.S. chips to Huawei and other Chinese companies that violate U.S. sanctions or export control laws. Investors are worried the news could put trade talks between the two largest economies in the world in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley tumbled 4% after it posted a steep decline in its fourth quarter profit, citing volatility in the markets.
Chipmakers were also down, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) forecast its sharpest quarterly revenue fall in a decade. Its customer Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 0.6% over worries of declining demand for smartphones. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) slumped 3.3% and Micron (NASDAQ:MU) fell 2.5%.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) fell 0.5% ahead of its quarterly results after the closing bell. The streaming site raised subscription rates in U.S. earlier this week and is expected to report an increase in subscribers.
Elsewhere Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) continued to be volatile, jumping 16.5%, while Boeing (NYSE:BA) inched up 0.3%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,290.95 a troy ounce and crude oil decreased 1.3% to $51.62 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.09% to 95.76.