US STOCKS-Wall Street sinks to 1-month low on trade, growth fears

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Trump vows to slap more tariff on Chinese imports
* U.S. employment growth slows in July
* Tech leads slide among major S&P sectors
* NetApp tumbles after slashing forecast
* Indexes down: Dow 0.76%, S&P 0.88%, Nasdaq 1.44%

(Changes comment, updates prices)
By Amy Caren Daniel
Aug 2 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks tumbled to a one-month low on
Friday after a sharp escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions and
a tepid July jobs report renewed fears of slowing economic
growth and raised bets of further interest rate cuts this year.
President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to slap a 10%
tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from next month,
sending global markets tumbling and investors fleeing to
safe-havens like U.S. Treasuries and the Japanese yen.
China on Friday said it would not be blackmailed and warned
of retaliation. "The tariff threat was a splash of cold water, the market
had became accustomed to the current state of U.S-China trade
negotiations, but a hike in tariffs wakes you up to the fact
that the trade war is still with us," said Michael Antonelli,
market strategist at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.
"If the trade war rhetoric is going to continue to ramp up,
then the Fed is going to have to continue to fight that with
monetary policy."
The Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls increased by
164,000 jobs last month and the economy created 41,000 fewer
jobs in May and June than previously reported. However, July's
numbers were in line with economists' expectations. Technology companies .SPLRCT , which get a sizeable portion
of their revenue from China, were the hardest hit, down 1.88%,
weighed by iPhone maker Apple Inc AAPL.O and chipmakers.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX slipped 1.61%,
while shares of Apple fell 2.4%.
The sudden escalation in trade rhetoric follows the Federal
Reserve on Wednesday playing down expectations of further
aggressive monetary policy actions after cutting interest rates
for the first time in a decade.
Hopes that the Fed would be more accommodative to counter
the impact of the bruising trade war had helped Wall Street's
main indexes hit record highs last month.
Traders of short-term interest-rate futures are now pricing
in an about 80% chance of a rate cut next month, and an about
70% chance of a further reduction in December, according CME
Group's FedWatch tool. MMT/
At 11:18 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 201.88 points, or 0.76%, at 26,381.54, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 26.02 points, or 0.88%, at 2,927.54. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 117.00 points, or 1.44%, at 7,994.12.
The S&P 500 slipped below its 50-day moving average, a
closely watched indicator of short-term momentum, during the
session.
The defensive real estate .SPLRCR , utilities .SPLRCU ,
and consumer staples sectors .SPLRCS were the only S&P sectors
trading higher. O/R
The second-quarter earnings season is in full swing, with
74.4% of the 355 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far
beating profit estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
NetApp Inc NTAP.O slumped 21.1% after the data storage
equipment maker lowered its forecast for the first quarter and
2020, blaming a weakening macro environment.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.51-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 2.96-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded eight new 52-week highs and 10 new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 144 new lows.