Wall Street edged lower as geopolitical tensions rose
U.S. stocks extended yesterday's fall on Tuesday as geopolitical risks continue to hurt the sentiment. Dovish comments from President Trump couldn't help the indexes recover its losses as they came in just before the closing bell and were overshadowed by the fact that he backed off on China.
President Donald Trump said he will not label China as a currency manipulator and added that the strong greenback was hurting the U.S. by making hard to compete with other countries who devalue their currencies. Following the comments, the Chicago Board Options Exchange SPX Volatility Index continued to rise, suggesting that the investors didn't want to be risk-takers today either.
Additionally, today's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson showed that the tensions between the Russian Federation and the United States heightened as highlighted by the joint press conference.Tillerson said that United States - Russia relations are at a low point and Lavrov argued that the U.S. took an illegal military action in Syria.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 59.44 points, or 0.3%, to 20,591.86, the S&P 500 fell 10.75 points, or 0.46%, to 2,340.25 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 30.61 points, or 0.52%, to 5,836.16.
Headlines from the U.S. session
- US Dollar approaches 100 on dovish Trump
- U.S. President Trump likes "low-interest" rate policy - WSJ
- U.S. President Trump: USD is getting too strong - WSJ
- Journalists in North Korea told to prepare for a "big and important event" - RTRS
- Russia's Lavrov: Want thorough probe of chemical attack in Syria
- U.S. Sec Tillerson: Our relations with Russia are at a "low point"
- Putin: Trust had eroded between the United States and Russia under President Donald Trump - Reuters
- Fed's Kaplan: US probably can't boost GDP growth anymore by increasing debt