Wall Street lower after U.S.-China trade spat

Wall Street slipped on Monday as a decision by the United States to impose special duties on Chinese tires sparked concerns about a possible trade dispute.

The decision by U.S. President Barack Obama could open the door to a host of trade complaints against Chinese products, creating tensions as Western nations seek support from the world's third-largest economy at G20 meetings later this month.

In response, China's commerce ministry said Sunday it launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of U.S. chicken products and auto parts exporters. For details, see

We've had a pretty good streak here of absolutely not one piece of negative news, and so this tire thing is probably the first, said Stephen Massocca, managing director, Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

(The market) was kind of due for a dinging, a little on the overbought side here, so it's only natural for a pullback to take place.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dropped 40.35 points, or 0.42 percent, to 9,565.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 4.04 points, or 0.39 percent, to 1,038.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shed 5.86 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,075.04.

Investors are increasingly wary of stock valuations as the current rally has extended into a sixth month with the S&P 500 up 53 percent since the March 9 low.

On the merger-and-acquisition front, Sprint Nextel Corp shares jumped 10 percent to $4.14 after Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported that Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG was considering a bid for its U.S. rival.

British confectioner Cadbury Plc reiterated its stance on a takeover bid from Kraft Foods Inc over the weekend as Cadbury's chairman, Roger Carr, said it was an unappealing prospect being absorbed into Kraft's low growth conglomerate business model.

Kraft shares rose 0.2 percent to $26.13.

The U.S.-China row helped lift shares of U.S. tiremakers, with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co shares up 5.3 percent to $18.18, while Cooper Tire & Rubber Co adding 8.8 percent to $15.85.

Obama will attempt to revive a stalled push for stricter oversight of Wall Street Monday, using the anniversary of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's collapse to argue for sweeping regulatory changes.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)