Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 Falling amidst U.S.-China Dispute

UTC by Teuta Franjkovic · 3 min read
Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 Falling amidst U.S.-China Dispute
Photo: Depositphotos

Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 are falling in the pre-market after it has become known that President Donald Trump is going to hold a news conference on China on Friday.

Stocks on the United States markets plunged in the pre-market on Friday as the investors are waiting for U.S. President Donald Trump to hold a press conference regarding China and its possibly intentional COVID-19 spread as well as its “security bill” imposing on Hong Kong. Meanwhile, in the pre-market Dow Jones fell 95 points at 4:30 am ET, at the same time, the S&P 500 went down by 0.30%, while the Nasdaq 100 decreased by 0.23%.

Trump’s announcement came after China’s National People’s Congress approved a national security bill for Hong Kong. The bill will bypass Hong Kong’s legislature, raising concerns over the longevity of Hong Kong’s “one party, two systems” principle, which respects extra freedoms mainland China does not have.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow stated on Thursday that Hong Kong may now be needed to be treated like China when it comes to trade and other matters, echoing remarks by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday.

Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York commented:

“We are concerned (it’s) saber-rattling with China… It was just a big selloff because of that.”

Dow and S&P 500 Losing Points as Technology Stocks Are Down

Wall Street ended lower on Thursday following a late-session reversal, with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) weighing on the market after President Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order related to social media companies. Stocks of Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) ended down 4.4% and Facebook went down by 1.6% following news of the executive order.

In the meantime, Trump said he was directing Attorney General William Barr to work with states to enforce their own laws against what he described as deceptive business practices by social media companies.

Stocks had been higher for most of the session as investors continued to bet on a swift recovery from the coronavirus-driven economic slump.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell yesterday by 147.63 points, or 0.58%, to 25,400.64, the S&P 500 lost 6.4 points, or 0.21%, to 3,029.73 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 43.37 points, or 0.46%, to 9,368.99.

Banking Stocks Down

On Friday stock were mostly down in premarket trading. Facebook (FB) and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) lost more around 1% each while Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) also posted small losses. Bank stocks started to drop after yesterday they managed to successfully return some of their strong gains for the week.

Citigroup, therefore fell 1.34% while Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) declined by 0.80%. Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC) dipped 1.21% and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) slipped 0.38%.

The Labor Department said Thursday another 2.1 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That’s more than a Dow Jones analysts’ estimation of 2.05 million. Still, the speed of new filings has fallen from previous weeks. Continuing claims, which represent a better unemployment picture, plunged by around 4 million in their first decline since the coronavirus outbreak.

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