Wall Street ends high-volume session lower on trade jitters

Wall Street stocks ended lower on Friday, capping a day of heavy trading with investors mostly pulling back from initial concerns over an escalating trade dispute between the United States and China.

U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled an initial list of strategically important goods that would be subject to a 25 percent tariff effective July 6, a move China’s Commerce Ministry called “a threat to China’s economic interest and security.”

China issued its own list of U.S. imports subject to tariffs, targeting soybeans, aircraft, autos and chemicals.

Since early May, the two countries have held several rounds of talks but have yet to reach a deal, as the United States pressures China to narrow a $375 billion trade deficit.

Friday also marked “quadruple witching day,” the quarterly simultaneous expiration of U.S. options and futures contracts, which tends to boost trading volume as investors replace expiring positions.
Volume hit the highest point since Feb. 8, when the S&P 500 sank to its lowest level of the year so far.

Companies considered the most sensitive to trade war worries were among the day’s biggest drags. Shares of Boeing Inc (BA.N), the single-largest U.S. exporter to China, fell 1.3 percent, while tariff-sensitive construction equipment maker Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) and chemical company DowDupont.
Inc (DWDP.N) were down 2.0 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.