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US STOCKS-Wall Street falls as trade anxieties spike

Published 05/18/2019, 04:29 AM
Updated 05/18/2019, 04:30 AM
US STOCKS-Wall Street falls as trade anxieties spike

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* U.S.-China trade talks have stalled - CNBC
* U.S. agrees to lift metal tariffs on Canada, Mexico
* Consumer sentiment hits highest in 15 years - UMich
* China's Luckin Coffee surges in U.S. market debut
* Indexes down: Dow 0.38%, S&P 0.58%, Nasdaq down 1.04%

(Updates to market close)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street ended lower on
Friday as continuing trade tensions pulled industrial and tech
shares down, and the Dow capped a fourth straight week of losses
in its longest weekly losing streak in three years.
While all three major U.S. indexes struggled for direction
for much of the session, they turned decisively negative
following a report from CNBC that U.S.-China trade negotiations
have stalled.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq suffered their second successive
weekly declines after U.S. stocks failed to fully recover from
Monday's steep sell-off.
"It is not unusual for stocks to weaken at the end of a
week," said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in
Charlottesville, Virginia. "The possibility of something weird
happening over the weekend leads people to take money off the
table as the week comes to a close."
China added fuel to the fire of the increasingly rancorous
trade war with the United States, striking a more aggressive
tone and suggesting further talks could be fruitless unless
Washington changes course. Elsewhere in the multi-front U.S. tariff war, President
Donald Trump confirmed he would delay imposing imported auto
tariffs by as much as six months, and agreed to lift metal
tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Trade headlines overshadowed upbeat economic data. The
University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index jumped 5.3% in
May to its highest reading in 15 years. "After earnings season the market seems to shift to these
macro factors that are difficult to predict and difficult to
trade on," Tuz added. "You see more whipsawing in the markets in
this kind of environment."
Tariff jitters also dragged on key industrial shares.
Farm equipment maker Deere & Co DE.N was the biggest
percentage loser on the S&P 500, dipping 7.7% after cutting its
full-year forecast. Caterpillar Inc CAT.N , 3M Co MMM.N , Textron TXT.N ,
General Dynamics GD.N and Fedex Corp FDX.N all helped pull
the industrial sector .SPLRCI 1.1% lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 98.68 points,
or 0.38%, to 25,764, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 16.79 points, or
0.58%, to 2,859.53 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
81.76 points, or 1.04%, to 7,816.29.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, all but utilities
.SPLRCU closed in the red, with industrials and energy .SPNY
seeing the largest percentage losses.
With 460 of S&P 500 companies having posted first-quarter
results, 75.2% of which beat analyst expectations, the mostly
upbeat first-quarter earnings season is nearly complete.
Analysts now expect first-quarter earnings growth of 1.4%, a
significant turnaround from the 2% loss expected on April 1.
Active wear company Under Armour Inc UAA.N gained 7.8%
following JP Morgan's upgrade of the stock to "overweight."
Pinterest Inc PINS.N slumped 13.5% after its first
quarterly earnings report as a publicly-traded company.

Shares of Luckin Coffee Inc LK.O jumped 19.9% as the
Chinese challenger to Starbucks Corp SBUX.O made its debut.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
2.96-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.52-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 33 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 55 new highs and 101 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.71 billion shares, compared
to the 6.98 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

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