U.S. stocks took a steep dive on Tuesday following remarks U.S. President Donald Trump made that suggested that he was in no hurry to finalize a trade deal with China. Trump told reporters in London that "In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the (presidential) election (in November of 2020) for the China deal, but they want to make a deal now and we will see whether or not the deal is going to be right." These comments hinting that the trade deal could extend well into 2020 caused all major stock indices to continue Monday's decline.
Here's how the U.S. stock market closed after normal trading hours Tuesday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Recently, it seems that the Trump administration is moving backwards towards trade with not only China, but various other countries. On Monday, Trump tweeted: "Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies. which is not good for our farmers. Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries. The Federal Reserve should likewise act so that countries, of which there are many, no longer take advantage of our strong dollar by further devaluing their currencies. This makes it very hard for our manufactures & farmers to fairly export their goods. Lower Rates & Loosen - Fed!"
Also later on Monday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative stated that it found France's Digital Services Tax as discriminatory against U.S. digital companies, "such as Google
In Stock Sector News, most of the major sectors saw share losses continue during trading on Tuesday. The few that ended the day in the positive include Real Estate +0.74% and Utilities +0.50%. The rest that saw major drops in market shares include Energy -1.55%, Financials -1.32%, Industrials -1.10%, Consumer Discretionary -1.01%, Information Technology -0.85%, Materials -0.67%, Health Care -0.21%, Consumer Staples -0.18%, and Communication Services -0.08%.
Lastly, in Commodity and Currency News, oil prices have made slight gains in Tuesday markets. West Texas Intermediate's prices climbed just over +0.41% and Brent Crude pared the loss it experienced yesterday with a modest price gain of over +0.05%. Gold prices and futures are also during well in the volatile market climate, with the price of the commodity increasing +1%, which is their highest mark in nearly a month. Finally, the U.S Dollar is continuing to lose value, with the DXY index dropping around -0.15% in the wake of current tariff news.
