Stock market: Chinese tech names getting slammed

A
man covers his face as he reads information displayed on an
electronic screen at a brokerage house in Shanghai May 17,
2010.
REUTERS

Chinese tech stocks traded in the US are set to take hit Thursday
as both tech stocks and Chinese stocks have been punished
overnight.

Thursday’s sell-off comes
after the Dow Jones industrial average tanked 831 points, or
3.15%, on Wednesday as traders grappled with global
growth concerns, trade fears, and the possibility of more Federal
Reserve interest-rate hikes. The tech sector took a beating on
Wednesday when the
FAANG companies lost a collective $172 billion in value.

And that was just the start of the selling. Overnight,
Chinese markets were hit extremely hard, with the Shanghai
Composite plunging 5.22% to its lowest level in more than four
years.  At issues was an escalation in the recent trade
tensions between the US and China.

On Wednesday, 
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin
warned China
not to weaken its currency as
an alternative to tariffs. His comments came one day
after China’s minister for commerce, Zhong Shan, said
“China doesn’t want a trade war, but would rise up to it should
it break out.”

Here’s the scoreboard as of 8:45 a.m. ET on
Thursday:

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