Wall Street dragged by Apple, Amazon, fears of fresh tariffs

US stock markets were lower on Monday as technology names such as Apple and Amazon.com fell, bearing the brunt of expectations President Trump will make good on threats to set new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, and that Beijing will retaliate. 

The upcoming tariffs will be on a list of items, announced in July, that included internet technology products, other electronics, printed circuit boards and consumer goods. Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with a 0.75 percent drop in the consumer discretionary sector leading the declines, weighed by shares of Amazon that fell 2.2 percent.

The technology sector dropped 0.34 percent pressured by a 1.4 percent decline in shares of Apple. Apple had earlier said tariffs could hit a "wide range" of its products.

A senior administration official told Reuters over the weekend that Trump was likely to announce the new tariffs as early as Monday while a widely read Chinese tabloid warned China would not be content to only play defense.

"Investors are slowly starting to realize that these new tariffs could be extremely disruptive to the supply chain," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR in New York.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor fell 0.3 percent.

At 9:57 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 38.74 points, or 0.15 percent, at 26,115.93, the S&P 500 was down 5.93 points, or 0.20 percent, at 2,899.05 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 48.69 points, or 0.61 percent, at 7,961.35.

Chinese firms Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu lost between 0.5 percent and 4.7 percent.

Twitter fell 4.3 percent, the most on the S&P, after brokerage MoffettNathanson flagged concerns over rising expenses.

The energy sector rose 0.41 percent as oil prices climbed on supply concerns from U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Chipmaker Broadcom was last up 1.5 percent after brokerage Nomura upgraded its shares on expectations that the company would raise its dividend to $9 per share.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.46-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

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The S&P index recorded 24 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 34 new highs and 28 new lows.