Stock market news: December 3, 2019 – Yahoo Finance

Stock News

Posted on December 3, 2019

U.S. stocks sold off sharply Tuesday after President Donald Trump suggested he was in no hurry to clinch a trade deal with China.

Here were the main moves in markets, as of 12:15 p.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): -1.08%, or 33.51 points
Dow (^DJI): -1.4%, or 390 points
Nasdaq (^IXIC): -1.1%, or 93.87 points
10-year Treasury yield (^TNX): -13.4 bps to 1.702%
Gold (GC=F): +1.13% to $1,485.80 per ounce

Trump told reporters in London that he had “no deadline” to come to a trade agreement with China, when asked whether he would want to reach a deal by the end of the year, according to multiple reports.

“In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal, but they want to make a deal now and we will see whether or not the deal is going to be right,” Trump said, according to outlets including Reuters.

The three major domestic stock indices sold off and Treasury yields fell following these comments early Tuesday morning, which hinted that a resolution to well over a year’s worth of tensions with China could drag on until at least through 2020 general elections in November. Each of the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq paced were on track to extend Monday’s declines, which had been the worst since mid-October.

Every component in the 30-stock down fell around market open, with declines led by trade sensitive companies including Caterpillar (CAT). Chipmakers including Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Micron Technologies (MU) were some of the worst performers in the S&P 500 Tuesday morning and were each lower by more than 2%.The VIX (^VIX), or so-called “fear gauge,” climbed as much as 17.7% to 17.55, reaching the highest level since October 10.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 20: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on November 20, 2019 in New York City. As trade talks with China continue to lack resolution, frustrating investors, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down over 100 points. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) — NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Trump’s comments come a day after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business there was a “logical deadline” of December 15 for a trade deal, given that that marks the date that tariffs on an additional $156 billion worth of Chinese imports are set to take effect. He had also said that if a deal didn’t materialize by then, “the president has made quite clear he’ll put the tariffs in,” even as Beijing has sought a roll-back of new and existing levies to clear the way for a trade deal.

The Trump administration was set to go ahead with the Dec. 15 tariffs as of Tuesday, Fox Business reported, citing unidentified trade sources.

In recent days, the Trump administration has been ratcheting up rhetoric around new tariff impositions, not only on goods from China but also on those from other trade partners with the U.S. Trump on Monday tweeted that he was reimposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, for what he considered to be unfair “massive devaluation of their currencies.”

Later Monday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it determined France’s digital service tax “discriminates against U.S. companies” including Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, and threatened to impose tariffs of about $2.4 billion worth of French goods. France’s finance minister told a French radio station Tuesday that the EU would be ready to retaliate if the Trump administration makes good on these tariffs, which could be imposed at a rate of as much as 100% on some French products.

France’s digital service tax comprises a 3% levy on companies with revenue of more than 750 million euros (or $850 million) globally, and with more than 25 million euros (or $27.86 million) in revenue coming from France. The levy is retroactive to January 2019.

The USTR said it is also mulling investigating whether digital taxes in Austria, Italy and Turkey target U.S. companies in a way considered unfair by the administration.