Wall Street Dips On New China Tariffs

Wall Street stocks finished somewhat lower on Monday after staging a partial recovery from steep losses spurred by US President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats against China.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.3 per cent, closing at 26,438 after having been down nearly 1.8 per cent earlier in the session.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.5 per cent to 2,932, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also fell 0.5 per cent to 8,123.

Trump vowed on Sunday that he would raise tariffs to 25 percent from the current 10 percent on $200 billion in Chinese merchandise on Friday, expressing frustration at the pace of US-China negotiations and throwing into doubt the chances of success in reaching a trade deal with Beijing.

Global stocks immediately sold off on the remarks, which suddenly seemed to put at risk months of negotiations.

But US stocks began edging higher soon after trading began on New York exchanges.

Analysts said stocks probably would have stayed down if investors believed the deal really was falling apart in a worst-case scenario of a wider trade war.

"Investors are looking at it as just posturing because these tweets run in stark contrast to what the White House has been saying in the last week," said Jack Ablin of Cresset Wealth Advisors. (AFP)