Investing.com - Wall Street tumbled Wednesday as tensions between the U.S. and China dampened investor appetite for risk.
The S&P 500 fell 20 points, or 0.7%, by 9:50 AM ET (13:50 GMT), while the Dow lost 200 points, or 0.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was down 62 points, or 0.8%.
China could restrict exports of 17 rare earth elements that are used in high-tech electronics and other goods to fight against Washington’s trade tariff war, Chinese newspapers said on Wednesday.
The heightened tensions pushed investors towards safe-have bonds, with the U.S. 10-year Treasury note falling further below the 3-month rate in a yield-curve inversion, which is seen as a leading indicator of a recession.
"Until markets see encouraging signs of both sides securing a trade deal, this negative sentiment and general risk aversion will most likely continue punishing global equity markets," FXTM analyst Lukman Otunuga wrote in a note.
Banks were down after the bell, with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) falling 0.5%, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) slipping 1% and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) declining 0.2%.
Uber (NYSE:UBER) was down 2%, while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slipped 0.8% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) was down 0.7%.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) rose 0.5% after it unveiled new CPUs, while Chinese social messaging app Momo (NASDAQ:MOMO) jumped 2.8% after its earnings came in better than expected.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,281.95 a troy ounce, while crude oil slumped 2.8% to $57.51. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.1% to 97.963.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.