Wall Street opens lower on fresh tariff threat

Stocks are opening slightly lower on Wall Street as investors wait to see whether the Trump administration will formally announce tariffs on another $200 billion-worth of Chinese goods.

The two governments have already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of each other’s goods. President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday that tariffs put the U.S. in a “very strong bargaining position, with Billions of Dollars, and Jobs, flowing into our Country.”

Restaurant chains and technology companies are among the decliners in early trading Monday. McDonald’s fell 2.1 percent, while Twitter slid 3.7 percent.

Amazon slid 3.5 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported that employees of the e-commerce giant were manipulating  reviews and helping sellers game the sales system. 

The S&P 500 index fell 3 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,900.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 33 points, or 0.1 percent, to 26,121. The Nasdaq composite slid 33 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,976.

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.01 percent.