After the U.S. market closed Monday, the Trump administration added eight Chinese companies and 20 Chinese public security bureaus to the U.S. blacklist over concerns that the organizations were allegedly involved in human rights violation in China's Xinjiang region. Stocks feel throughout trading Tuesday due to the continued escalation of trade tensions leading up to the high level meeting between U.S. and Chinese government officials in Washington Thursday.
Here's how the main U.S. market closed Tuesday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY): -1.56% or 45.73 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA): -1.19% or 313.98 points
NASDAQ Composite Index (QQQ): -1.67% or 132.52 points
Following the news of the blacklist, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang stated "stay tuned," when asked whether China would retaliate. This comment ignited further trade fears from investors over the future of the economic giants' trade relationship. Shuang had also denied any human rights abuses to Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Chinese officials strongly urged the U.S. to remove sanctions and stop accusing the nation of human rights violations.
After China's response, the Trump administration put visa restrictions on Chinese officials. The U.S. State Department said that the measures target officials "who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the detention and abuse of Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups," in northwest China.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that, "the United States calls on the People' Republic of China to immediately end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang, release all those arbitrarily detained, and cease efforts residing abroad to return to China to face an uncertain fate."
At this time, the U.S. and China are still set to meet for high level trade negotiations Thursday.
In U.S. economic news, the producer price index (PPI) for final demand unexpectedly dropped 0.3% in September, which was the largest decline in PPI since January. The weaker-than-expected data could give the Federal Reserve more cause to cut interest rates.
In a speech today addressing the National Association for Business Economic, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated that the time is now for the Federal Reserve to increase it security holdings to "maintain an appropriate level of reserves." Powell said that the Fed plans more permanent operations to make sure the U.S. financial system has enough in reserve and the market volatility events in overnight lending are better controlled.
In sector news, all U.S. sectors continue to decline as the U.S. and China trade war continues to escalate. The largest drops currently are Financials -2.02%, Health Care -1.83%, Information Technology -1.82%, and Energy -1.78%.
As the long-term trade war continues to grow, investor concerns grows surrounding the future of the U.S. domestic economy and all other global economies that trade with U.S. businesses. With both governments showing less signs of easing, it is uncertain where the economy will be by the end of the week.
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-07/u-s-blacklists-eight-chinese-companies-including-hikvision-k1gvpq77
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-08/china-says-stay-tuned-for-retaliation-over-u-s-tech-blacklist
- https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/08/us-puts-visa-restrictions-on-chinese-officials-over-abuses-of-muslims-in-xinjiang.html
- https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm
- https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20191008a.htm