FX.co ★ Wall Street Sinks as Trade Fears Mount

On Friday, U.S. stocks experienced a significant downturn, pulling back from their recent peaks. This decline was triggered by President Donald Trump's daunting remarks about potentially implementing a "massive" tariff increase on Chinese imports and his hint at possibly canceling his forthcoming meeting with President Xi Jinping. The S&P 500 saw a drop of 2.7%, marking its steepest fall since April. Meanwhile, the Dow decreased by 879 points, and the Nasdaq fell by 3.6%, erasing weekly gains despite having recently reached record highs. President Trump accused China of employing rare earth elements as a means to dominate global markets and criticized the new export restrictions imposed by Beijing, which have reignited fears of escalating U.S.-China trade tensions. Technology and semiconductor stocks were hit hardest by this downturn, with companies like AMD down by 7.8%, Nvidia decreasing by 5%, and Qualcomm dropping 7.3% following an antitrust investigation in China. This market sell-off was compounded by the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, now extending into its tenth day, which has resulted in delayed economic data and increased market volatility. Over the week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have both declined by more than 1%, while the Dow has suffered a loss exceeding 2%.