Investing.com – Wall Street fell on Monday after reports that Chinese officials are pessimistic about a trade deal spooked investors.
The Dow was down 27 points, or 0.1%, by 9:46 AM ET (13:46 GMT), while the S&P 500 lost 6 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 31 points, or 0.4%.
China thinks the possibility of a trade deal is bleak due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s reluctance to roll back trade tariffs, CNBC reported. Futures were in the green earlier over renewed optimism that a deal between the two largest economies in the world is possible.
"This is a market that's going to live or die by the tone around trade," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.
"There is some good news that's baked into this market, so when we get bad news this market's going to roll over," Hogan said.
Stocks sensitive to trade were lower, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) falling 0.8%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) down 0.5%, IBM (NYSE:IBM) slipping 0.6% and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) tumbling 1.1%.
FedEx (NYSE:FDX) fell 1.8%. FedEx CEO Federick Smith challenged the paper’s leadership to a public debate in Washington after the paper reported that the delivery company pays no U.S. tax.
Qudian (NYSE:QD) slumped 11.2% after the Chinese lender cut its full-year outlook and its earnings for the last quarter missed forecasts.
Elsewhere, Coty (NYSE:COTY) rose 4.1% after the cosmetic company said it was buying a 51% stake in Kylie Jenner's cosmetics and skincare businesses for $600 million. Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) gained 1.9% after it said it agreed to sell its 50% stake in Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines to Saracen Mineral Holdings for $750 million.
In commodities, the US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1% to 97.730 and gold futures inched up 0.2% to $1,471.35 a troy ounce. Crude oil futures fell 1.2% to $57.14 a barrel.
-Reuters contributed to this report