Dow dives over 600 points amid US-China trade tiff
U.S. stocks tumbled on Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 617 points recovering from a loss of over 700 points early afternoon as trade tensions and rhetoric between the U.S. and China escalate.
The Dow and the S&P 500 lost over 2 percent, marking the worst start to May since 1970. The Nasdaq Composite lost over 3 percent, the worst start to May since 2000.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 38460.92 | -42.77 | -0.11% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 5071.63 | +1.08 | +0.02% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 15712.748618 | +16.11 | +0.10% |
Within the Dow, Procter and Gamble and Coca-Cola fared the best, while Apple, Goldman Sachs and Facebook were the worst performers.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG | PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. | 162.58 | +1.12 | +0.69% |
| KO | THE COCA-COLA CO. | 61.55 | +0.92 | +1.51% |
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 169.02 | +2.12 | +1.27% |
| GS | THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC. | 423.04 | -0.68 | -0.16% |
| FB | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
China slapped $60 billion on U.S. imports set to begin on June 1 early Monday morning. This as President Trump continued to razz the Chinese in a series of weekend and morning Tweets.
The latest had Trump threatening that the lack of a deal may mean it will become "too expensive to buy in China" among other things.
All of the large S&P 500 sectors fell led by technology and consumer discretionary names, while utilities, which are viewed as a safe haven, saw modest gains
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VGT | VANGUARD WORLD FUND VANGUARD INFO TECH VIPERS | 495.39 | +0.85 | +0.17% |
| XLY | CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY SELECT SECTOR SPDR ETF | 174.17 | +1.57 | +0.91% |
| FUTY | FIDELITY COVINGTON TRUST MSCI UTILS INDEX ETF | 43.07 | +0.30 | +0.70% |
On Friday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu said trade talks between China and the U.S, which lasted for just two hours, “went fairly well” and that “talks would continue.” This as the U.S. increased tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese exports to 25% from 10% that same day.
After trade talks broke up later in the day, U.S. officials said they were preparing to expand those tariffs to cover another $300 billion of goods, covering most imports from China.
The back-and-forth between the two nation's is wreaking havoc in global equity markets, with some investors speculating that a deal may not happen at all.
"The U.S. sharply hiking tariffs on Chinese imports and China threatening to retaliate has thrown into doubt the possibility of the two sides reaching a deal after almost a year of talks," Jasper Lawler of LCG said in commentary as reported by the Associated Press.
Elsewhere around the globe, shares retreated in Europe and Asia.
In commodities, oil prices surged after Saudi Arabia said two of its oil tankers were sabotaged in the Gulf of Oman near the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The kingdom said the unspecified act of sabotage did not lead to any casualties or oil spills, but the attack Sunday raised concerns about the security of oil supplies.
U.S. benchmark crude oil traded around the $60 per barrel level in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. While Brent crude, the international standard, rose to nearly $69 per barrel.
The Associated Press' Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.