Investing.com – Wall Street open lower on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump announced trade tariffs against China, prompting investor fear of a trade war.
The S&P 500 was down 11 points or 0.41% to 2,771.16 as of 9:38 AM ET (13:38 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased 181 points or 0.72% to 24,993.69 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell over 39 points or 0.51% to 7,721.38.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on $50 billion of Chinese goods on Friday, with China threatening to respond.
The two largest economies in the world have been in a tit-for-tat over global trade tariffs in recent months as the two struggle to reconcile their trade differences. The tariffs have increased chances of a full-blown global trade war as the European Union and Canada have voted to retaliate against U.S. metal tariffs.
Technology stocks were lower, with Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) falling 1.00%, Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) down 3.76% and Dropbox Inc (NASDAQ:DBX) decreasing 0.93%. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) dipped 1.08% while Boeing (NYSE:BA) slumped 2.28% and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) lost 2.00%.
Elsewhere Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) inched up 0.18% while AT&T (NYSE:T) rose 0.15% and apparel firm Canada Goose Holdings Inc (NYSE:GOOS) surged 27.68% after its earnings results came in higher than expected.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 89 points or 0.68% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 16 points or 0.30% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 84 points or 1.09%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 24 points or 0.70% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 127 points or 1.28%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 1.50% to $1,288.70 troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 1.33% to $66.00 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.17% to 94.77.