Investing.com – Wall Street fell on Monday as violent clashes in Hong Kong and trade comments from U.S. President Donald Trump caused investors to dial down last week's optimism.
The Dow was down 122 points or 0.4% by 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT), while the S&P 500 lost 12 points or 0.4% and the Nasdaq composite fell 42 points or 0.5%.
Hope of a trade deal diminished after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had not agreed to end tariffs on Chinese goods as part of a trade deal, as was claimed by the Chinese Commerce Ministry earlier last week.
Talks were moving slower than he would like, and he would only make a deal if it was best for America, Trump added on Saturday.
Meanwhile civil unrest in Hong Kong worsened as police used live ammunition on protesters who had tried to block roads and delay trains during the morning commute. Elsewhere, protesters set a man arguing with them on fire.
"You have China involved in two major variables now, which seems to be causing some nervousness," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
"During times like these, the markets are going to be volatile and erratic, especially after coming off all-time highs."
Stocks sensitive to trade were down, with Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) down 0.8%, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) falling 0.4% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) slipping 1.4%. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) slumped 2.5% after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) downgraded the chipmaker to equal-weight from overweight.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) lost 1% on allegations of gender discrimination after David Heinemeier Hansson claimed the company approved an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Card with 20 times the credit limit of his wife, despite his wife having a better credit score. The New York Department of Financial Services has opened a probe into the allegations.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 2% after its price target was raised by Jefferies to $400 per share from $300 a share, with the bank's analysts taking a bright view of the company's margin outlook, according to CNBC. Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) jumped 5.1% after reports that KKR has formally made an offer to buy the company, Bloomberg reported.
In commodities, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.2% to 98.015 and gold futures were flat at $1,463.05 a troy ounce. Crude oil futures lost 0.8% to $56.76 a barrel.
-Reuters contributed to this report