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US STOCKS-Wall St falls as trade war fears add to virus woes

Published 05/15/2020, 11:32 PM
Updated 05/15/2020, 11:40 PM
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* Philadelphia chip index tumbles
* Apple, Boeing fall amid trade worries
* Main U.S. stock indexes eye worst week since mid-March
* Indexes fall: Dow 0.86%, S&P 0.90%, Nasdaq 0.91%

(Adds quote, details; Updates prices)
By Ambar Warrick and Medha Singh
May 15 (Reuters) - A slump in technology stocks knocked Wall
Street's main indexes lower on Friday, as signs of deteriorating
trade relations between the United States and China added to
economic worries due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Trump administration moved to block semiconductor
shipments to China's Huawei Technologies HWT.UL from global
chipmakers. China was swift to respond with a report saying it
was ready to put U.S. companies on an "unreliable entity list,"
according to the Global Times. China's countermeasures include launching investigations and
imposing restrictions on U.S. companies such as Apple Inc
AAPL.O , Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O , Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O , as
well as suspending purchase of Boeing Co BA.N airplanes, the
report said, citing a source.
Boeing fell 2.9% and Apple was down 2%. The trade-sensitive
Philadelphia chip index .SOX slumped about 3.7% while the S&P
technology .SPLRCT sector dropped 1.5%.
The ratcheting up of Sino-U.S. tensions comes a day after
President Donald Trump signaled a deterioration of his
relationship with China over the virus outbreak, saying he has
no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping right now and
going so far as to suggest he could even cut ties with Beijing.
"The overarching concern that we've had, as this epidemic
has worked its way around the globe, is that U.S.-China
relations are heading in the wrong direction and that can cause
a worse economic effect than the pandemic itself," said Art
Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New
York.
After a strong rally from 2020 lows, the three major stock
indexes are on course for their worst week since mid-March, as
sobering comments on the pandemic from major U.S. officials
pointed to a longer period of economic weakness.
Meanwhile, economic data continued to paint a grim picture
with the latest batch of reports indicating U.S. retail sales
and manufacturing output endured record declines in April as the
virus-led slump seeped into the second quarter. "After that big rally (in April) it makes sense that stocks
may pull back to align a little more with the weakening economic
data that we're seeing over all," said Ryan Detrick, senior
market strategist for LPL Financial.
At 11:09 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 203.84 points, or 0.86%, at 23,421.50, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 25.58 points, or 0.90%, at 2,826.92. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 81.35 points, or 0.91%, at 8,862.37.
Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower with real
estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU posting the biggest
percentage declines. Healthcare .SPXHC , consumer staples
.SPLRCS and energy stocks .SPNY were the only ones higher.
Abbott Laboratories ABT.N slipped 2.6% after the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration said the company's speedy coronavirus
test could potentially be inaccurate, but can still be used to
test patients. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.10-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.06-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded three new 52-week highs and no new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 29 new highs and 11 new lows.

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