Investing.com – Wall Street fell on Monday as investors fear a possible trade war between China and the U.S.
The S&P 500 was down six points or 0.24% to 2,634.49 as of 9:42 AM ET (13:42 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased 16 points or 0.07% to 24,086.94 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell over 38 points or 0.55% to 7,024.52.
On Sunday China increased tariffs by 25% on 128 different U.S. products including pork, wine, nuts and seamless steel pipes, in response to trade tariffs from the U.S. The news has increased trade tensions between the two biggest economies in the world and risen investor fear of a trade war.
The White House is expected to list Chinese imports that will be tariffed, which is expected to include about $50 billion to $60 billion worth of technology products.
Meanwhile U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to end the North American Trade Agreement over Easter weekend if Mexico does not do more to stop unauthorized crossings and drug trafficking.
Technology stocks continued to fall on Monday. Luxury car-maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slumped 4.34% after reports that a fatal car crash involving one of its Model X cars was on autopilot. Shares of the firm have already fallen 30% in the last month.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was down 0.73% amid user data concerns, while Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) slipped 2.10% after Trump said the online retail giant needs to pay taxes and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) fell 1.52%.
Elsewhere Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched up 0.63% while McDonalds Corp BDR (SA:MCDC34) rose 1.76% and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) increased 0.37%.
In Europe, markets were closed for the Easter Monday holiday.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.84% to $1,338.50 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 1.15% to $64.19 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.18% to 89.59.