US close: Markets finish lower after long weekend of Trump posturing

Wall Street trading reversed its earlier fortunes to finish in the red on Tuesday following the long Memorial Day weekend, as the trade spat between the world's two largest economies remained firmly in focus.

Dow Jones I.A.

43,750.86

04:30 15/10/20

n/a

Nasdaq 100

20,896.67

12:15 14/11/24

-0.66%

-139.49

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 0.93% at 25,347.77, the S&P 500 lost 0.84% to 2,802.39, and the Nasdaq 100 was off 0.31% at 7,278.38.

At the open, the Dow was 65 points higher, even as all eyes remained firmly fixed on Washington and Beijing.

Donald Trump - who had predicted a swift end to the trade war last week - said at a press conference in Japan on Monday that he was "not ready" to make a deal with China.

"I think they probably wish they made the deal that they had on the table before they tried to renegotiate it.

“They would like to make a deal. We're not ready to make a deal," he said.

Trump said American tariffs on Chinese goods "could go up very, very substantially, very easily."

Talks stalled earlier this month after Trump decided to ramp up tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese goods and blacklisted giant tech company Huawei.

"I think sometime in the future China and the United States will absolutely have a great trade deal, and we look forward to that," Trump added.

"Because I don’t believe that China can continue to pay these, really, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs. I don't believe they can do that."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing on Monday that the US had “various voices” on China-US trade talks.

“Sometimes it is said that an agreement will be reached soon, and sometimes that it is difficult to reach an agreement.

"In the same period of time, China's position has always been the same.

“China has always believed that the differences between any two countries should, of course, be resolved through friendly consultations and negotiations.”

Reuters reported that a senior official at the state planner said on Tuesday that Beijing would prioritise domestic demand for so-called rare earths, in what appeared to be a clear move to amp up pressure on Washington.

On the data front, home price growth in the States cooled down further in March, according to the results of a widely-followed survey.

The year-on-year rate of increase in the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller's national home price index slipped from the 3.9% pace observed in February to 3.7% for March.

It was a similar story in the case of the 20 largest US cities, with the rate of home price appreciation dipping from 3.0% to 2.7%, versus 6.7% one year back.

Elsewhere, the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index jumped to 134.1, up from April's reading of 129.2 and ahead of analysts expectations of 130.

"Consumer Confidence posted another gain in May and is now back to levels seen last Fall when the Index was hovering near 18-year highs,” said the Conference Board's senior director of economic indicators Lynn Franco.

In corporate news, Global Payments was 2.98% lower after announcing it and TSYS had decided to merge via an all-share transaction, while Booz Allen Hamilton reversed earlier losses to close up 0.77% after beating fourth-quarter estimates.

Cloud-based software company Salesforce was up 0.33%, and aerospace and electronics firm Heico added 0.72%.

Shares in vegan meat alternative product manufacturer Beyond Meat were ahead 7.95% after analysts at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch initiated their coverage of the stock at 'neutral' with an $85 target price.

Fiat Chrysler stock was running 7.24% higher in New York trading, after announcing the day before its intention to merge with Renault.

Dow Jones - Risers

Visa Inc. (V) $163.71 1.36%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $102.42 0.55%
Boeing Co. (BA) $354.88 -0.01%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $41.90 -0.05%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $126.16 -0.06%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $108.52 -0.11%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $132.62 -0.15%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $51.69 -0.15%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $58.73 -0.24%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $118.26 -0.34%