Stocks close lower as Wall Street braces for trade war escalations

US
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi
Jinping.
Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via
AP

Stocks were mostly lower Thursday as trade concerns continued to
loom over Wall Street. Tech resumed selling for a third straight
session, a day after Congress grilled executives from
Twitter and Facebook about political content and security
measures. The dollar and Treasury
yields fell.

Here’s the scoreboard:

Dow Jones industrial
average: 25,996.38
+21.39 (+0.082%)

S&P
500: 2,879.51 −9.09 (-0.31%)

Nasdaq
Composite: 

7,922.73
 
−72.45 (-0.91%)

1. The Trump administration is expected to follow through with
   tariffs on roughly $200 billion worth of Chinese
   products after a public comment period ends
   Thursday. Beijing has vowed to retaliate against
   the action, which is slated to hit more consumer products than
   previous duties. Ahead of the anticipated announcement,
   businesses have been preparing
   for financial pain.
2. Progress remains elusive after the US and Canada held a
   second day of trade negotiations. In last-ditch
   efforts to modernize NAFTA, high-level trade officials have yet
   to resolve key issues like tariffs on dairy products and a
   dispute settlement procedure. Last
   week, Trump threatened to hit
   Canada with duties on auto imports and to
   exclude the country from a trade agreement with Mexico.
3. The weekly unemployment rate in the
   US fell
   to nearly a five-decade low. The Labor Department
   said jobless claims dropped by about 10,000 last week
   to 203,000, the lowest since December 1969. Monthly
   employment numbers are scheduled for release
   Friday. 
4. 
   CBS board members are reportedly in talks to negotiate
   an exit deal for the company’s embattled chief executive Leslie
   Moonves and asking for autonomy from its controlling
   shareholder. The board appointed law firms to
   investigate the CEO after the New Yorker published a story
   detailing sexual harassment allegations against Moonves, whose
   interim replacement is expected to be chief operating officer
   Joe Ianniello. Shares
   of the company jumped more than 3% following the news.

And a look at the upcoming economic calendar:

• Employment numbers are out in the US and Canada. 
• China releases trade balance data.