Stocks – Wall Street Tumbles as Trade Tensions Escalate 

Investing.com – Wall Street fell on Wednesday as tensions between the U.S. and China put a damper on any hope of a trade breakthrough between the two.

The was down 49 points, or 0.2%, by 9:37 AM ET (13:37 GMT), while the inched down 4 points, or 0.1%, and the slumped 18 points, or 0.2%.

Tensions were exasperated by the U.S. Senate passing legislation backing Hong Kong protesters that would ban the export of items like tear gas and rubber bullets to the city’s police force, as conflict between the two sides escalated this week. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang lashed out against the vote, saying it “seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations.”

The news added to jitters after U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated that he would raise tariffs if phase one of a trade deal with China is not signed.

“The biggest concern (to markets) is the Senate action with respect to Hong Kong,” said Rick Meckler, partner, Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Jersey.

“China has been clear that they don’t want to see any foreign interference in Hong Kong. That’s the real negative to start today’s market.”

Stocks sensitive to trade tumbled, with Apple (NASDAQ:) down 0.2%, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) falling 0.4% and Caterpillar (NYSE:) slipping 0.7%.

Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:) slumped 13.3% after missing third-quarter profit and sales forecasts, while Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:) fell 0.4% after late-stage trial testing of a cancer treatment missed a main goal of preventing skin cancer from recurring in a certain group of patients.

Elsewhere, Target (NYSE:) jumped 8% after raising its full-year profit guidance ahead of the holiday season and Lowe’s (NYSE:) gained 5% on upbeat earnings.

In commodities, the , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.1% to 97.865 and slipped 0.2% to $1,470.55 a troy ounce. rose 0.8% to $55.80 a barrel.

-Reuters contributed to this report

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.