The markets sold off more aggressively today as investors woke up to a list of Chinese goods that the US would place tariffs on. Though there was actually no specific list the President stated that they would be products that contained "industrially significant technologies." The 25% charge on about $50 billion in goods caused the Dow 30 to fall 87, the S&P 500 to lose 3 and the Nasdaq 100 to close lower by 14.
Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) was the biggest loser in the Dow as their business is very sensitive to rising trade issues. Shares were lower on the day by 2%. Boeing (NYSE: BA) was another obvious sell candidate on the news given their sensitivity to trade news as well. Add to that continued weakness in the banking names following yesterday's ECB rate announcement and that left only a handful of names in the positive today for the Dow.
The S&P 500 was also much lower on the day but was held down by energy. The price of Oil sold off aggressively (-2,7%) from it's technical resistance level. This came precisely as the Russian Energy Minister said that Russia and Saudi Arabia are supporting a gradual increase in production after an 18 month cap on output. This leads traders to think that they will in fact vote to increase production at OPEC's meeting next week. Marathon Oil (NYSE: MRO) and Anadarko Petrol (NYSE: APC) were the biggest losers in the S&P today.
In other news, At&t (NYSE: T) announced that the deal between them and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is officially closed. The company announced that the $85 billion merger was completed last night. Names like Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA), CBS (NYSE: CBS), and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) all were higher again on the news.