After over 350 points in gains over the last five sessions, the Dow took a 220 point plunge today after the White House threw cold water on the high hopes for a China trade agreement, after sending positive signals all week.  (Early in the session, it was even worse, the Dow being down nearly 400 points at noon before starting a long afternoon recovery.)  Also dampening market enthusiasm was the EU slashing growth forecasts for both 2019 and 2020 in its largest countries, resparking global growth fears.  All the stocks dependent on China took a big hit, especially semiconductors, and as is usually the case on troubling days, everyone took refuge in the defensive sectors, namely utilities and real estate.  Q4 reporting today was also disappointing, especially from Twitter.  So far, more than half of the S&P has reported with 71 percent beating estimates.  So Q4 continues to go well but Q1 is suddenly looming as barely break-even, the new forecast now shrunk to 0.1% earnings growth compared to a 5.3 percent projection last month.  For the first time in a while, volume was above the 4-week average at 7.89 billion.  At least today, investors are off the fence and a little more nervous. 

thu  FEBRUARY 7, 2019 / 5:03 pm 

Wall Street slides on renewed U.S.-China trade fears

April Joyner

DJ:  25,169.53  -220.77       NAS:  7,288.35  -86.93         S&P:  2,706.05  -25.56      2/7

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks sank on Thursday as worries that the United States and China would not be able to reach a trade deal increased concerns about slowing global economic growth.  U.S. President Donald Trump said he did not plan to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping before the March 1 deadline set by the two countries for reaching an agreement.

U.S. stocks had already been under pressure after the European Commission slashed its euro zone growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020 due to an expected slowdown in the largest countries of the bloc, partly due to trade tensions.   “There’s a resurfacing of global growth fears, which has pushed U.S. stocks down,” said Veronica Willis, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis. “There are still some concerns surrounding trade, and I think those issues will linger for some time.”

Stocks pared losses toward the end of the session. The benchmark S&P 500 index hit a key technical level - 2,700 - that likely prompted buying, said Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee.  Still, among the S&P 500’s major sectors, only the defensive utilities and real estate indexes were positive, illustrating Thursday’s risk-off sentiment.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index tumbled 2.2 percent. Chipmakers get a large chunk of their revenue from Chinese customers.  Disappointing financial forecasts from several U.S. companies, including Twitter Inc, have also given investors pause.

More than half of S&P 500 companies have reported fourth-quarter results, with about 71 percent beating profit estimates, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. However, current-quarter earnings growth estimates have shrunk to 0.1 percent from 5.3 percent at the start of the year.  “As earnings reports come in, there’s a heightened concern that future revenue growth as well as earnings over the course of 2019 won’t be as robust as investors expected,” said Chad Morganlander, senior portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors in Florham Park, New Jersey.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 220.77 points, or 0.87 percent, to 25,169.53, the S&P 500 lost 25.56 points, or 0.94 percent, to 2,706.05 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 86.93 points, or 1.18 percent, to 7,288.35.

Energy stocks fell 2.1 percent, the largest percentage drop among S&P 500 sectors, as crude prices sank on worries of tapering demand because of trade tensions.  Twitter shares tumbled 9.8 percent after the social media company forecast that revenue in the first quarter would be weaker than expected and that its full-year operating costs would rise.  SunTrust Banks Inc shares jumped 10.2 percent after the bank agreed to be bought for about $28 billion in stock by fellow regional lender BB&T Corp, whose shares rose 4.0 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.34-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.08-to-1 ratio favored decliners.  The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 32 new highs and 34 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.82 billion shares, compared with the 7.49 billion-share average over the last 20 trading days.