US stocks plunge on new trade war fears

NEW YORK (AFP) – Wall Street stocks finished sharply lower on Friday after escalating threats in the US-China trade spat deepened fears of an all-out trade war.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down nearly 575 points, or 2.3 percent, at 23,932.76 after sinking more than three percent earlier.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 2.2 percent to 2,604.47, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 2.3 percent to 6,915.11.

Investors were unnerved by President Donald Trump's threats of tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese imports as the US president hit out at China's ''unfair retaliation'' to a prior Trump announcement of $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods. China's reply was also strident.

''If the US side disregards opposition from China and the international community and insists on carrying out unilateralism and trade protectionism, the Chinese side will take them on until the end at any cost,'' the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

Losses were broad-based, with all 30 members of the Dow finishing negative.

''The market is getting more concerned about the possibility of a trade war between the US and China,'' said Tom Cahill, portfolio strategist at Ventura Wealth Management.