NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks fell early Wednesday after President Donald Trump warned he could soon order a missile strike in Syria.
Prospects of military action in Syria lifted oil prices but weighed on stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.7 percent at 24,243.41 about 10 minutes into the session.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5 percent to 2,644.23, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.4 percent to 7,069.44.
The losses followed a strong session Tuesday in which stocks rallied after a conciliatory speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping raised hopes a US-China trade war could be averted.
But Syria gave investors a new worry to fixate on as Trump threatened that “missiles will be coming” in response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria.
Other sources of uncertainty included Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s announcement that he will not seeking re-election in November, and rising speculation that Trump might fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller after the FBI raided Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
The Federal Reserve later Wednesday will release minutes from a March monetary policy meeting, likely shedding additional light on the prospects for accelerating the expected pace of interest rate hikes.
US consumer inflation dipped in March amid plunging gasoline prices, but the annual rate rose suggesting a long-awaited uptick in price pressures could be drawing near, according to data released Wednesday.
Facebook rose 0.6 percent ahead of a second day of congressional hearings by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who won solid reviews in response to a barrage of questions from Senators on Tuesday.
Source: Brecorder
