Investing.com – Wall Street was down on Tuesday as political turmoil in Europe continued to rattle global markets and the White House moved ahead with tariffs on Chinese goods.
The S&P 500 was down 19 points or 0.70% to 2,702.19 as of 9:39 AM ET (13:39 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased over 213 points or 0.86% to 24,539.37 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell 35 points or 0.47% to 7,398.57.
European markets entered their second day of equity sell-offs as the Italian political crisis continued, while in Spain, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faces a confidence vote on Friday over corruption verdicts of people linked with his party.
Italy's anti-establishment parties abandoned plans over the weekend to form a coalition government after the country's president, Sergio Mattarella, refused to accept their euroskeptic candidate for economy minister. Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund official, was asked to form a new government, with snap elections expected as early as August.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump moved ahead with trade and investment restrictions on China, including tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Technology stocks were lower, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) down 0.74%, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) dipping 0.34% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) falling 0.47%. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) slumped 1.77% while General Electric (NYSE:GE) lost 1.23%.
Elsewhere social media firm Momo Inc (NASDAQ:MOMO) surged 11.50% after its earnings came in higher than expected, while Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) rose 1.68%.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 146 points or 1.14% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 66 points or 1.20% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 93 points or 1.21%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 dipped 52 points or 1.51% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 240 points or 2.46%.
In commodities, gold futures inched down 0.61% to $1,295.80 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 1.34% to $66.97 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.25% to 94.60.