Friday's early afternoon trade: Wall Street slides as US-China trade spat intensifies

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 450 points and the other main indexes slipped on Friday after US President Donald Trump's latest tariff threat on Chinese imports revived fears of a trade war between the two countries. Trump on Thursday threatened to slap $100 billion more in tariffs on Chinese imports, while Beijing said it was fully prepared to respond with a "fierce counter strike".
Fears of a trade war since Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminium more than a month ago have kept investors on edge over concerns that such protectionist measures would hit global economic growth. "Markets are absolutely appalled by protectionism," said Dec Mullarkey, managing director at Sun Life Investment Management based in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Mullarkey said the markets may tolerate some tit-for-tat, given the strong fundamentals. "Let's fast forward to next week, if earnings are strong then markets will take a lot of comfort and that's the expectation."
Mixed signals from administration officials also added to the nervousness. Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC he learnt of the new tariffs on Thursday night. He told Bloomberg TV that negotiations had not yet started, but later said on Fox Business that talks are ongoing. At 12:54 am the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 320.42 points, or 1.31 percent, at 24,184.8. The Dow dropped 456 points at session's low.
The S&P 500 was down 26.29 points, or 0.99 percent, at 2,636.55 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 63.26 points, or 0.89 percent, at 7,013.29. All 30 Dow components were in the red and each of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with the defensive utilities and real estate sectors falling the least.
As on Wednesday, industrials led the decliners. Boeing, the single largest US exporter to China, fell 2.5 percent. Caterpillar declined 2.8 percent and Deere dropped about 2.3 percent.