Stocks slip on fear of widening tariffs

Stocks sank again Monday on fears that the Trump administration will escalate its trade dispute with China by imposing tariffs on all remaining goods the United States imports from that nation.

The declines came during another dizzying day of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average swung between a gain of 352 points and a loss of 566 before closing down 245.39 points, or 1%, at 24,442.92.

Bloomberg News reported that the Trump administration will put tariffs on the rest of the United States’ imports from China if the nations’ presidents don’t make substantial progress in easing the trade dispute next month. Meanwhile, corporate earnings season is in full swing, and big companies have warned that tariffs already in place have raised their costs.

Technology and internet companies, industrial firms and retailers took losses after the Bloomberg report as Wall Street’s recent bout of volatility continued.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has dropped 9.4% in October and is on track for its biggest monthly loss since February 2009 — right before the market hit its lowest point during the 2008-09 financial crisis.

The S&P 500 index fell 17.44 points, or 0.7%, to 2,641.25 on Monday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slid 116.92 points, or 1.6%, to 7,050.29. The Russell 2000 index fell 6.51 points, or 0.4%, to 1,477.31.

Among industrials, Boeing sank 6.6% to $335.59. Some early gains for tech and internet stocks also faded. Microsoft ended down 2.9% at $103.85. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, sank 4.5% to $1,034.73.

Amazon.com dropped 6.3% to $1,538.88. The online retailer also tumbled Friday after it reported weak sales and gave a lower-than-expected revenue estimate for the quarter that includes the holiday shopping season. Its stock traded above $2,000 a share in early September and has dived 24.5% since then.

The S&P 500, the main benchmark for the U.S. stock market, has fallen 9.9% from its Sept. 20 record high. The Nasdaq has dropped 13% from its Aug. 29 record high.

For most of this year, investors have remained hopeful that the U.S. and China would work out their disagreements on trade policy and that many of the tariffs would be reduced or eliminated. But in recent weeks they have lost some of their confidence.

Higher tariffs could be especially severe for tech firms, which make many of their products in China, and for industrial companies, which are already paying higher prices for metals.

Although most tech firms fell Monday, open-source software company Red Hat soared 45.4% to $169.63 — reversing its losses from earlier this year — after IBM agreed to buy it for $34 billion in stock.

Bond prices slipped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.08% from 3.07%.

U.S. crude oil fell 0.8% to $67.04 a barrel. Brent crude fell 0.4% to $77.34 a barrel.

Wholesale gasoline rose 0.5% to $1.82 a gallon. Heating oil fell 0.8% to $2.28 a gallon. Natural gas was unchanged at $3.19 per 1,000 cubic feet.