Tech decline drags stocks down again

U.S. stocks fell to a twoweek low amid renewed selling in technology shares as the Trump administration eyed escalating the trade war and concerns mounted over flagging demand for computer chips. Emergingmarket equities flirted with a bear market and Treasuries advanced.

The Nasdaq indexes retreated for a third day, as semiconductor shares paced declines on concern the sector will slow. Selling eased in afternoon trading, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a gain. The S&P 500 ended lower. Facebook dropped a fourth day as the threat of tighter regulation loomed a day after tech executives testified before Congress. Mixed economic data ahead of Friday’s jobs report added to investor concern.

Emerging-market stocks retreated a seventh day, bringing losses from a recent high to almost 20 percent, just below the threshold for a bear market. While Argentine’s peso and Indonesia’s rupiah rose versus the dollar, Russia’s ruble weighed on MSCI’s gauge of developing-nation currencies. Treasuries rose. Crude oil tumbled below $68 a barrel.

“There are many risks out there,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York, wrote in an email to clients. “Emerging markets causing market chaos (forget US stocks are at all time highs and could care less), rising trade tensions threatening long-established world trade patterns and disrupting company supplychains.”

The weakness in tech shares comes ahead of the key U.S. payroll report that will offer clues on the labor market’s health and the state of wage inflation. For now, emerging economies hold the key to sentiment, with recent losses fueling fears that turmoil could spill into developed markets. While focus remains on efforts from Argentina to Indonesia to sustain confidence, the potential for President Donald Trump to announce another round of tariff hikes on Chinese imports as soon as Thursday also looms large.

Elsewhere, the pound climbed after being whipsawed amid Brexit discussions. Gold advanced with copper. Bitcoin dropped after a report that Goldman Sachs was said to delay setting up a trading desk for cryptocurrencies.