NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets fell on Monday as worries about softening demand for the iPhone dragged down shares of Apple Inc and persistent trade tensions between China and the United States sapped investor sentiment.
Concerns about slowing economic growth also pushed down the dollar.
The U.S. benchmark S&P 500 stock index dropped 1.7 percent following a decline in shares of Apple and its suppliers. The Wall Street Journal reported Apple had cut production orders in recent weeks for iPhone models it launched in September.
Renewed tensions between China and the United States also weighed. At an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative meeting in Papua New Guinea over the weekend, the issue prevented leaders from agreeing on a communique, the first time such an impasse had occurred in the group’s history.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said in a blunt speech on Saturday that there would be no end to U.S. tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods until China changed its ways.
“That APEC was unable to issue a final statement clearly indicates that China versus the rest of the world isn’t just about the United States,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Massachusetts. “It’s a widening of trade concerns that are already rattling markets.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 395.78 points, or 1.56 percent, to 25,017.44, the S&P 500 lost 45.54 points, or 1.66 percent, to 2,690.73 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 219.40 points, or 3.03 percent, to 7,028.48.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.30 percent.
Mixed signals regarding the Federal Reserve’s course of rate hikes in the
