Wall St. ends down two percent as US-China trade fears intensify

NEW YORK — US stocks dropped about 2% on Friday, with the Dow falling more than 570 points, as US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat on Chinese imports fueled increasing concern over a US trade war with China.

Stocks added to losses and hit session lows in afternoon trading after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the US central bank will likely need to keep hiking interest rates to keep inflation under control and said it was too soon to know if rising trade tensions would hit the US economy.

Fears of a trade war since Mr. Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports more than a month ago have kept investors on edge over concerns that such protectionist measures would hit global economic growth.

“It’s a reaction to concerns about the administration’s approach to trade. The market has vacillated between writing it off as just talk and assuming there could be a serious problem,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He and others said investors also appeared to be reducing risk ahead of the weekend.

“If the market is down it often tends to accelerate on Friday. Investors don’t want to take the risk of coming in Monday after having something happen over the weekend,” Mr. Meckler said.

Mr. Trump late Thursday threatened to slap $ 100 billion more in tariffs on Chinese imports, while Beijing said it was fully prepared to respond with a “fierce counter strike.”

US companies seen as more likely to be hit by trade tensions with China were among the biggest drags on the Dow, including Boeing, down 3.1%. The S&P 500 industrials index, down 2.7%, had the biggest losses among sectors, though selling was broadbased.

Chipmakers, which as a group rely on China for about a quarter of their revenue, also declined. The Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 3.1%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 572.46 points or 2.34% to 23,932.76; the S& P 500 lost 58.37 points or 2.19% to 2,604.47; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 161.44 points or 2.28% to 6,915.11.

The trade war worries continued to pressure stocks even as Trump administration officials sought to dampen concerns. Mr. Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in various interviews that he learned of the new tariffs on Thursday night, but also said there are ongoing talks on trade between the US and China.

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in an interview on CNBC said he was cautiously hopeful the US will reach an agreement with China on trade.

The S&P 500 ended just above its 200- day moving average after trading well below that key support level that is watched by technical analysts.

For the week, the S& P 500 was down 1.4%, the Dow was down 0.70% and the Nasdaq was down 2.1%. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 3.77 to 1; on Nasdaq, a 3.59-to-1 ratio favored decliners. —