China fears, lower oil erase 2018 gains for S&P, Dow

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped back into losses for the year on December 6 as US stocks extended slide on fresh worries over China-U.S. tensions, lower oil prices and tumbling US bond yields.

At 11:15 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 708.51 points, or 2.83 percent, at 24,318.56, the S&P 500 was down 69.48 points, or 2.57 percent, at 2,630.58 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 147.18 points, or 2.06 percent, at 7,011.25.

The arrest of Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s chief financial officer in Canada for extradition to the United States cast fresh doubts over the prospect of Washington and Beijing striking a deal in their 90-day truce period.

The markets enjoyed a mini rally last week through Monday after the Federal Reserve signaled that the pace of rate increases could slow and the China-US truce over the weekend.

But optimism over a trade resolution faded on December 4 and, along with a drop in longer-dated US Treasury yields, rekindled worries of slowing economic growth and sent Wall Street sliding.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yield held at three-month lows on December 6 and piled more pressure on the market along with a drop in oil prices after the OPEC signaled it may agree to a smaller-than-expected cut in crude output.

“In general, we all have the same questions we did on Tuesday,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR in New York. “The news on Huawei throws another level of uncertainty on our ability to actually come to some agreement with China.”

Data showed the US trade deficit jumped to a 10-year high in October, suggesting the Trump administration’s tariff-related measures to shrink the trade gap were ineffective.

All the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, led by the technology sector’s 1.93 percent drop.

Worries over Huawei, one of the largest buyers of chips according to research firm Bernstein, sent the Philadelphia Semiconductor index tumbling 2.30 percent.

The trade-sensitive industrial sector fell 1.88 percent. Energy stocks retreated 2.92 percent, while the drops in the bond market pushed financials SPSY 2.51 percent lower.