NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks fell early Thursday on revived trade war worries, but electric car maker Tesla surged higher on an upbeat profit outlook.
About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 25,169.87, a loss of 0.7 percent from Wednesday’s close.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.4 percent to 2,801.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.3 percent at 7,865.15.
Investors were focused on another flare-up in US-China trade tensions after President Donald Trump asked the US Trade Representative to consider increasing the proposed tariffs on $200 billion of targeted Chinese imports to 25 percent from the planned 10 percent.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the United States to remain “cool-headed,” and warned that the increased pressure will not work on Beijing. Markets are anxious about a full-out trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
The latest back-and-forth on trade came after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, but signaled likely future rate hikes due to strong US economic growth.
Investors are looking ahead to Friday’s US employment report, which is projected to show a gain of 190,000 jobs in July and unemployment dipping to 3.9 percent.
In earnings news, Tesla motors surged 8.5 percent after it reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss of $717.5 million, but said it was on track to become profitable the rest of the year.
Source: Brecorder
