Yahoo Finance Stocks - Dow Closes Lower as Bank Stocks U-Turn on Trade Tensions
Investing.com - The Dow closed lower Tuesday on rising fears about trade after President Donald Trump warned international trade partners that the U.S. "will not tolerate" abuse on trade.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.26%. The S&P 500 fell 0.14%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.18%.
In an address to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump didn’t pull any punches as he launched into a tirade against international trading partners and OPEC, prompting investors to abandon their bullish bets on stocks.
"Those days are over. We will no longer tolerate such abuse (on trade)," Trump said. "We will not allow our workers to be victimized, our companies to be cheated, and our wealth to be plundered and transferred. America will never apologize for protecting its citizens."
Trump's tough talk on trade pressured financials, mostly banks, to reverse gains, forcing the broader markets lower.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) fell from intraday highs to end the day lower. The early-day rally in financials had followed a rise in bond yields ahead of a widely-expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike Wednesday
Rising Treasury yields are seen as boon for banks, boosting their net interest margin, the difference between the interest income generated by banks and the amount of interest paid out to their lenders.
Energy stocks also fell victim to Trump's ire, this time aimed at OPEC members, who the president blamed for higher energy prices, claiming the cartel was "ripping off the world."
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude futures for November delivery rose 20 cents to settle at $72.28 a barrel, below intraday highs of $72.75.
A sell-off in semiconductor stocks, meanwhile, gave investors further reason to rein in appetite for stocks, after Raymond James warned that the sector had entered a cyclical downturn.
In an otherwise dour day in tech, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose 2% after an analyst at Jefferies suggested that the e-commerce giant could see its shares surge to $3,000 by 2020, driven by strong growth in the company's Prime, cloud and advertising businesses.
On the economic front, a surge in consumer confidence to a nearly-18-year high reaffirmed investor expectations that the U.S. economy remained on solid footing.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence gauge rose to 138.4 in September from 134.7 last month, beating economists’ forecast for a reading of 132.2.
In corporate earnings news, Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) stock fell in after-hours trading despite the sportswear giant revealing above-forecast earnings of 67 cents on revenue of $9.95 billion.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
ABIOMED Inc (NASDAQ:ABMD), CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF), Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL), Microchip Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ:MCHP), General Mills Inc (NYSE:GIS) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.
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