Stock prices fall in trading The Dow Jones industrial average fell 287.26 points to close at 24,700.21, with Boeing, DowDuPont and Caterpillar being the worst performing stocks in the index. The 30-share index also erased all gains for the year and posted a six-day losing streak, the longest since March 2017.
The S & P 500 fell 0.4 percent to 2,762.45, with materials, industry and technology plummeting. The Nasdaq Composite closed 0.3 percent lower at 7,725.59. Both indexes fell more than 1 percent earlier in the session.
"At some point you have to wonder how many times the stock will react to the same little news. It may be all just a game as a negotiating tactic to get some sort of deal, "said Willie Delwiche, an investment strategist at Baird. However, "with such high investor optimism, there may not be much margin for error, and there is a real risk that this is beginning to erode consumer and business confidence.
Shares of some of the biggest chipmakers fell because of their huge exposure to China. Qualcomm and Nvidia both fell 0.9 percent. Semiconductor equipment companies have a 52 percent revenue exposure to China, according to a recent report from Morgan Stanley.
Ford Motor, which also does a large number of businesses in China, saw its shares fall about 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, Caterpillar and Boeing - considered to be two bellwethers for trade tensions on Wall Street - both fell by at least 3.5 percent.
Shares of railway companies and package shippers fell as fears of a trade war will slow the economy and reduce the amount of imported goods to be shipped across the country. FedEx and J.B. Hunt both fell more than 1.5 percent, while CSX lost 1.9 percent.
"With every escalation, you become more worried that things will get out of hand," said Bob Phillips, managing principal at the Spectrum Management Group. "I know Trump wants to do something to help the rough workers, but ... every time you do this, China has to come out strong
Trump asked the United States Trade Representative to identify Chinese goods worth $ 200 billion for additional tariffs, at a rate of 10 percent. If China "refuses to change its practices" and insists on continuing with the recently announced new tariffs, additional levies will be imposed in Beijing, Trump said on Monday (18/6) night.
Immediately after, the Ministry of Commerce of China issued a response, stating that the latest threat of tariffs further violates the previous negotiations and consensus reached between the US and China. "The United States has started a trade war in violation of the laws of the market and is inconsistent with current global development trends," the ministry said.
Further tensions in US-China relations may end up hurting some US companies, said Jim O'Neill, an economist and chairman of the think tank Chatham House.
"I often tell people that the modern American company, Apple, for three years sold more iPhone to Greater China than to the US. So in the end, if the US really took this fighting stance, it would make Apple as the best-growing company that would suffer, "O'Neill told CNBC.
US Treasury prices rose on Tuesday, with investors seeking safety amid a stock market rally. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to 2.893 percent from about 2.91 percent on Monday (18/6).
Meanwhile, commodity prices fell sharply as soybean futures reached the lowest price in more than two years
Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel, said in a note that "we expect tariffs on goods may cut some tenths of a percentage point of the GDP of each country. While the impact seems minimal, as the domestic economy continues to struggle to maintain a growth rate of close to 2 percent, losses even to a few tenths are an undesirable impact
