Investing.com – Wall Street tumbled on Monday, as China’s yuan hit a decade low and Beijing hit back at the U.S. for threatening yet more import tariffs.
The onshoreYuan rate, which is tightly managed by the Chinese central bank, briefly traded above 7 to the dollar level, triggering fears of a round of competitive devaluations by countries across the globe.
U.S. president Donald Trump tweeted his disapproval, calling the move currency manipulation and asking the Federal Reserve whether it was paying attention. He has often criticized China for manipulating its currency, which Beijing has denied doing.
China also hit back at the threat of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, announced last week by Trump, by asking state-owned enterprises to stop buying American agricultural goods, Bloomberg reported.
The Dow slumped 479 points or 1.8% by 9:37 AM ET (13:37 GMT), while the S&P 500 was down 51 points or 1.8% and the Nasdaq composite lost 184 points or 2.3%.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) slumped 3% on concerns that proposed tariffs could hurt its iPhone sales, while chipmakers were also down on trade concerns. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) fell 3.9%, while NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) declined 4.9% and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) lost 3%.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) fell 2.5%, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) dipped 3% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slipped 2.1%.
Uber (NYSE:UBER) was down 3.3% after Sky News reported at the weekend that London's transport regulator is unlikely to approve its application for a five-year operating license, and instead only issue a twelve-month one.
Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) jumped 5.8% after it posted strong earnings and maintained its profit guidance for the full year.
In commodities, crude oil fell 2% to $54.56 a barrel on concerns about the demand outlook, while gold futures rose 1.2% to a new six-year high of $1,477.95 before retracing a little to $1,474.85 a troy ounce. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.4% to 97.468.