Stocks closed mixed Friday, surrendering earlier gains after Bloomberg reported President Donald Trump instructed his administration to follow through with tariffs on roughly $200 billion worth of Chinese imports — despite a fresh round of trade negotiations between the world's largest economies having been proposed days earlier.
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Stocks close mixed after Trump reportedly OK's additional tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports
Stocks closed mixed Friday, surrendering earlier gains after Bloomberg reported President Donald Trump instructed his administration to follow through with tariffs on roughly $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.
Here's the scoreboard:
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Shares of large-cap industrial stocks like Caterpillar (-0.6%) fell following the report. Boeing (+0.2%) pared gains after trading up more than 1%. Apple (-1.14%), which recently warned tariffs could force the company to raise prices, closed lower at $223.84 a share.
On the commodities front, oil prices shed nearly $1 per barrel as investors feared China could retaliate with its proposed 25% tariff on crude imports. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, gained 0.2% after falling below $68 a barrel. Brent was trading down 0.2% at $78.07.
Offshore, the Chinese yuan sank 0.35% against the dollar. Treasury yields inched higher, with the 10-year surpassing 3% for the first time since the beginning of August.
Elsewhere, the Commerce Department said retail sales increased by the smallest amount in six months at 0.1% in August, compared with economist expectations for a 0.4% gain. Other data out Friday showed import prices saw the largest drop in more than a year and a half in August, partly due to a decline in fuel costs and a rallying dollar.
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