US markets end in red as trade-fight concerns linger

28 Aug 2019 Evaluate

The US markets ended in red on Tuesday as traders expressed uncertainty about the escalating US-China trade war. President Donald Trump has claimed top Chinese officials called asking for the resumption of trade talks, but Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang continues to say he has not heard of any recent call. Geng said that China hopes the US will return to rationality, stop its wrong practices and create conditions for the two sides to resume talks on the basis of mutual respect. Besides, the yield curve between the ten-year and two-year yields inverting to its worst level since 2007 also led to renewed concerns about a looming recession.

On the economic data front, consumer confidence in the US showed a slight deterioration in the month of August, according to a report released by the Conference Board. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index edged down to 135.1 in August after surging up to 135.8 in July. Street had expected the index to show a much more substantial decrease to 130.0. The modest decrease by the headline index came as the expectations index slid to 107.0 in August from 112.4 in July, with consumers moderately less optimistic about the short-term outlook. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions will be better six months from now fell to 21.9 percent from 24.0, while those expecting conditions will worsen increased to 10.0 percent from 8.4 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 120.93 points or 0.47 percent to 25777.90, Nasdaq lost 26.79 points or 0.34 percent to 7826.95 and S&P 500 was down by 9.22 points or 0.32 percent to 2869.16.

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