US stocks trend lower as US-China trade tensions intensify

Major US equity indices opened lower on the last trading day of the week and were being weighed down by intensifying US-China trade dispute.

The US President Donald Trump approved tariffs on about $50 billion worth of Chinese imports and marked an escalation in the trade spat between the world's two largest economies. The official statement released this Friday revealed that a 25% tariff would be imposed on an initial list of strategically important imports from China effectively from July 6.

   •  US announces 25% tariff on $50 bln of Chinese imports

The announcement was quickly followed by a promise for immediate and equivalent retaliation from Beijing, showing clear intention to impose tariffs on the corresponding amount of US goods. Meanwhile, Trump vowed to impose additional tariffs if China struck back, albeit said that there was no trade war with China.

The latest development weighed on investors' sentiment and triggered some risk-off trade, which eventually led to a shaky start in the US equity markets. The trade tensions issue, however, hasn't been enough to derail the broader bullish trend and hence, the downfall might still be looked upon as a buying opportunity.

At the time of writing this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down around 135-points to 25,040 and the broader S&P 500 Index slipped nearly 10-points to 2,772, while, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell over 30-points to 7,730.