Wednesday early afternoon trade: Dow slides as trade war worries weigh on industrials

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 250 points, or 1 percent, on Wednesday as industrial stocks tumbled over growing fears of a trade war with China after President Donald Trump sought to impose fresh tariffs. Trump is looking to levy tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports, targeting the technology, telecom and apparel sectors, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Trump administration is pressing China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion, the White House said Wednesday. The S&P industrial stocks were again the worst hit, falling 1.02 percent. Boeing tumbled 3.5 percent, leading the losers and wiping off 70 points from the Dow Industrials. The uncertainty over the latest news was weighing on stocks, said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.
"Given the rearrangement that he has made to his cabinet ... it's being read as a lot more protectionist now than it was two weeks ago." At 12:38 pm ET, the Dow was down 225.29 points, or 0.9 percent at 24,781.74 and the S&P 500 fell 0.32 percent at 2,756.56. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.01 percent at 7,511.56, with a bump in technology stocks helping the index.
Also weighing on sentiment was data that showed US retail sales fell for a third straight month in February, pointing to a slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter. But the data helped cool concerns of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates at a faster pace in 2018. Financial stocks fell 0.7 percent, tracking a decline in US bond yields.