Advertisment
Stocks slashed losses to close well off the lows of the day on Friday as investor worries about a U.S.-China trade war decreased.
The Dow Jones Industrials came off its lows of the day, staying negative but 84.83 points to finish at 25,090.48, with Caterpillar as the worst-performing stock in the index
The S&P 500 lost 3.07 points to 2,779.42, after briefly turning positive — with energy lagging.
The NASDAQ retreated 14.66 points to 7,746.38
Earlier on Friday, the Dow fell as much as 280.93 points, while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ both dropped 0.7% after the Trump administration said it will impose a 25% charge on up to $50 billion in Chinese goods, raising fears of a trade war looming between the U.S. and China.
Over the past month, the NASDAQ has tacked 5.4% and the S&P 500 has gained 2.5%. Meanwhile, the Dow has risen about 1.6%.
In a statement Friday, President Donald Trump said the measures would affect Chinese goods "that contain industrially significant technologies," without specifying those products. He added that the action comes "in light of China's theft of intellectual property and technology and its other unfair trade practices."
Trump also said the U.S. would impose more tariffs on Chinese goods if China retaliates with duties of its own on American products.
China promptly responded to the Trump administration's announcement, with the Chinese Commerce Ministry saying it will implement tariffs on the same scale as the U.S.
Shares of Boeing chucked about 2.5%, and Caterpillar fell as much as 3.1%, before closing off their lows of the day. Both companies are sensitive to trade tensions given their large amounts of overseas business.
Prices for the benchmark for the 10-year U.S. Treasury eked higher, lowering yields to 2.93% from Thursday’s 2.94%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices decreased $2.25 to $64.64 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices faded $25.60 at $1,282.70 U.S. an ounce.
