Stock Market Close: Bumpy Week Ends Lower As Chinese Trade Worries Mount

U.S. stocks ended a bumpy week on the downside following word Chinese agriculture officials canceled a planned trip to Montana.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 160.19 points or 0.59% to 26,934.60. The Nasdaq Composite dumped 65.20 points or 0.8% to 8,117.67 and the S&P 500, which flirted with a record high Thursday, fell 14.81 or 0.49%, to 2,991.98.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was 3 billion shares with 1,493 issues advancing and 1,441 declining.

Leading the most actives were Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Roku Inc. (ROKU), which plunged nearly 20% amid concerns over competition and its valuation, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).

Chinese agriculture officials canceled a planned visit next week to Montana as part of a tour of farm states as U.S.-China trade talks were ramping up. President Trump has said he wants a comprehensive agreement with the Asian nation, not just an agreement over agricultural products, as he was poised to impose 30% tariffs on some Chinese goods.

Reuters reported it was unclear whether the officials would visit Nebraska as planned or cancel the entire tour. The Chinese Embassy told the Montana Farm Bureau the goodwill delegation was returning home sooner than expected but did not give a reason for the change in schedule.

Investor focus earlier this week was on Federal Reserve action on monetary policy. The central bank lowered the federal funds rate to 1.75% to 2% to try to cushion the economy from the continuing trade dispute with China and softer global growth. Investors had been hoping the Fed would cut rates by more than the 25 basis points it shaved and signal further cuts before the end of the year. Though that didn’t happen, the Fed injected $200 billion into the repo market to try to keep overnight interest rates, which had spiked to 10%, in check.

Volatility in oil also jolted the market following the weekend attack on Saudi oil facilities that briefly cut that country’s output by half. Full capacity was expected to be restored by the end of the month.

Global markets were mostly higher Friday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was off 0.13% but both Japan’s Nikkei 225 and China’s Shanghai Composite gained, 0.16% and 0.24%, respectively. Australia’s S&P/ASX rose 0.2%.

In Europe, the London FTSE closed off 0.16%, the German DAX gained 0.08% and the French CAC added 0.22%.

The British pound lost 0.44% against the dollar while the euro was off 0.18%. The U.S. dollar index gained 0.35%.

Oil futures spent much of the day in positive territory but crude oil turned south, falling 0.07% to $58.09 a barrel and Brent crude rose to $64.67, up 0.61%. Gold added 1.15% to $1,523.60 an ounce while silver gained 0.73% to $18.015 an ounce.

Bonds yields were lower. The 30-year Treasury note fell to 2.154%, off 0.78%, while the 10-year-note fell to 1.72%, off 0.065%.