U.S. equities sank on Tuesday after President Donald Trump suggested he may want to delay a trade deal with China until after the 2020 presidential election.
The Dow Jones Industrials slumped 280.23 points, or 1%, to finish the day at 27,502.81. The 30-stock average was lower by trade-vulnerable Apple, Caterpillar and Boeing.
The S&P 500 fell 20.67 points to 3,093.20, amid losses in chip stocks like Nvidia, Micron and Advanced Micro Devices.
The NASDAQ slouched 47.34 points to 8,520.64
Some stock of companies with higher-than-average overseas sales exposure underperformed the broader market: Caterpillar slid 2%, Intel dropped 2.8% and Apple lost 1.8%.
Markets hit their lows of their day after Fox News reported that the White House still plans on moving ahead with scheduled Dec. 15 tariffs on Chinese goods notwithstanding recent efforts at a “phase-one” trade truce.
Washington and Beijing have been haggling over a “phase-one” trade deal over the past several weeks, an effort seen by many investors as an attempt at a sort-of truce until the globe’s two largest economies can agree on a longer-term relationship.
Both sides have introduced tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of imports as the disagreement escalated over the last year; additional U.S. tariffs are set to take effect on Dec. 15.
Trump also ratcheted up economic barbs with French President Emmanuel Macron for comments he made disparaging NATO and the European country’s new digital-services tax, which was signed into law in July.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury darted higher, lowering yields to 1.72% from Monday’s 1.82%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices eked up 35 cents at $56.31 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices hiked 14 dollars to $1,483.20 U.S. an ounce.