US stock market mixed as trade worries return
The stock market posted mixed results Friday after a report that President Trump has told aides to go ahead with tariffs on about $200 billion in additional Chinese goods.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased its initial losses following the news, closing 8.68 points higher, or 0.03 percent, at 26,154.67. The S&P 500 rose less than one point to 2,904.98. The Nasdaq Composite fell 3.67 points, or 0.5 percent, to 8,010.04.
The Bloomberg News report surfaced as the market was posting modest gains earlier in the day's session. Shares had been climbing on expectations that trade tensions between the U.S. and China were easing and consumer sentiment surged to a six-month high.
But those expectations were dashed and the Dow, which had been up about 65 points, dropped approximately 120 points immediately after the report.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 43974.72 | +566.25 | +1.30% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 5955.45 | +38.34 | +0.65% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 18993.800181 | +27.66 | +0.15% |
“When the headlines hit, the knee-jerk reaction in the market is to either sell off or gain immediately,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial said to Bloomberg. “The president has had a couple of tweets suggesting he’s in no hurry to craft an agreement, but despite this, talks are apparently going to resume. And the question will be whether or not that leads to more negotiations.”
Shares of technology companies were leading the stock market lower.
Meanwhile, Wall Street was also paying attention to Hurricane Florence, which made landfall near Cape Fear, N.C., on Friday morning. Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 storm with winds of 90 mph moving west at only 6 mph. Heavy rain, gusting winds and rising floodwaters hammered the Carolinas, threatening millions of people in its path with torrential rainfall and widespread flooding.
In Asian markets on Friday, Japan's Nikkei average rallied to over a seven-month high as sentiment improved on signs China and the United States could set aside their differences and resolve a heated trade dispute.
The Nikkei ended the day up 1 percent and higher by 3.5 percent for the week, the best weekly performance in two months. China’s Shanghai Composite ended Friday down 0.2 percent and down 0.8 percent for the week. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished the day1 percent higher.
In European trading, London’s FTSE trade up by 0.24 percent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.29 percent and France’s CAC rose 0.32 percent.