Wall Street sinks to 1-month low on US-China trade jitters amid recession fears

Wall Street extended its sell-off on Friday as renewed U.S.-China trade jitters and a slowdown in job growth put all three major US stock indexes on pace for their worst week since December, when markets hit their trough amid recession fears. The S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow looked set to post their fifth consecutive day of losses, marking the S&P 500`s first five-day losing streak since mid-March. The Nasdaq was on track for its fourth down day in a row.

The sell-off wrapped up a tumultuous week, which saw the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time since 2008 and a renewal of trade war fears following a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump announcing plans to impose additional tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports on Sept 1.
 
A report from Labour Department on Friday showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 164,000 jobs last month, in line with expectations.

"The 164,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in July illustrates that, for all the concern over weak global growth and trade policy, the domestic economy is still holding up reasonably well," said Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics in London. 

"President Donald Trump`s move to re-escalate tensions with China has clearly increased the pressure on the Fed to deliver further policy loosening," Hunter added. "But the relative resilience of employment growth suggests that trade tensions alone won`t necessarily be enough to convince officials to cut rates again."

The CBOE Volatility index, a gauge of investor anxiety, was on a path to close at its highest level in two months.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 155.36 points, or 0.58%, to 26,428.06, the S&P 500 lost 24.58 points, or 0.83%, to 2,928.98 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 118.91 points, or 1.47%, to 7,992.21.

Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, eight were trading lower. Technology companies, which get a sizeable portion of their revenue from China, were the hardest hit, down 1.75%. This sector was weighed by iPhone maker Apple Inc  and chipmakers.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was set for its biggest one day percentage drop in two and a half months.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index slipped 1.7%, while shares of Apple fell 2.2%. Second quarter earnings season has passed its halfway mark, with 380 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 73.9% have beaten analyst expectations.

New tariff threats dragged oil prices lower for the week, as Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported quarterly results. Exxon topped analyst expectations but fell year-on-year, while Chevron`s earnings rose 26% in line with forecasts. Exxon Mobil`s and Chevron`s shares were down 1.5%, and 0.1%, respectively.

Sprint Corp shares dropped 6.2% even after reporting fewer-than-expected phone subscriber losses in the quarter.

Restaurant Brands International jumped 6.3%, after quarterly profits topped expectations.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.01-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.45-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.

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The S&P 500 posted 9 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 16 new highs and 172 new lows.