Tuesday's Stock Market Open: US Equities Plunge On Trump’s China Trade Remarks

U.S. equity indexes were sharply lower Tuesday afternoon after President Donald Trump raised doubts that a trade deal with China will occur quickly.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 399.18 points to 27,383.86 while the S&P 500 fell 33.14 points to 3,080.73 and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 96.96 points to 8,471.02 .

Speaking in London at the NATO conference, Trump said: “A China trade deal is dependent on one thing -- do I want to make it?” Then he added: “I have no deadline, no. In some ways, I think it’s better to wait until after the election if you want to know the truth. But I’m not going to say that. I just think that.”

Trump’s comments came less than two weeks before a Dec. 15 deadline for more tariff increases on Chinese goods.

“The run higher seen in major benchmarks in the past few months has been built in no small part on questionable foundations with near incessant positive noises on the U.S.-China trade front seemingly the major catalyst,” wrote David Cheetham, chief market analyst at XTB Limited.

The U.S. received some good news on the holiday sales front.

Adobe projected Cyber Monday sales of at least $9.2 billion, a 16.9% jump from last year. Smartphones accounted for almost one-third of Cyber Monday sales of $3 billion, a 46% surge from the prior year.

“Retailers unlocked sales earlier to combat a shorter shopping season, while continuing to drive up promotion of the big branded days including Black Friday and Cyber Monday," said John Copeland, head of marketing and consumer Insights at Adobe. "Consumers capitalized on deals and ramped up spending, especially on smartphones, where activity increased on days when shoppers were snowed or rained in.”

The Trump administration has threatened to levy tariffs of up to 100% on $2.4 billion of French goods, including cheese, champagne, housewares and handbags, in retaliation for France’s digital services tax that would penalize U.S. tech firms.

Bruno Le Maire, the French minister of the economy, said the threat was “unacceptable” and that the European Union would challenge it.

But later during a live conference with French Prime Minister Emanuel Macron, Trump said of the tax issue: “I think we’ll probably be able to work it out.”

Overnight in Asia, markets finished mixed. The Hang Seng fell 0.2% while Japan’s Nikkei-225 dropped 0.64% and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.31%

European markets all closed mixed with the FTSE 100 down 1.75% while Germany's DAX edged up 0.19% and France's CAC 40 dropped 1.03%.

Crude oil futures rose 0.32% to $56.14 per barrel and Brent crude gained 0.28% at $61.09. Gold futures gained 1.11%.

The euro was up 0.13% to $1.093 while the pound sterling rose 0.46% at $1.3001.