| U.S. stocks were cruising along this morning, rebounding from the prior day losses, until…11:00 am et when stock market selling pressure began, with stocks sinking as renewed concerns over tariffs and trade weighed on market sentiment and disrupted the non-stop market rally for weeks. President Trump said in a post on social media platform “Trust Social” that there no reason to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping in two weeks in South Korea as planned, adding that the U.S. is calculating a massive increase in tariffs on Chinese imports. Trump said China has been sending letters to countries worldwide saying it planned to impose export controls on every element of production related to rare earths. “Nobody has ever seen anything like this but, essentially, it would ‘clog’ the markets and make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World, especially for China”, he said. Trump added that he had not spoken to China’s Xi Jinping because there was no reason to do so. The comments were the first on trade tensions in several months, and with stock markets around all-time highs, investors took profits, with the biggest hits in names exposed to China (technology, retail, consumer, etc.). For the week, the S&P 500 fell -2.43%, the Nasdaq declined -2.53%, and the Dow fell -2.73%. S&P 500 marks biggest weekly % loss since May, Nasdaq registers biggest weekly % loss since April. |