• US stock markets ended lower on Tuesday in quiet trading
• Financial and technology shares main loss leaders
• Markets still jittery over international trade tariffs scheduled for Friday

Stock markets in the United States ended the day lower on Tuesday, reversing earlier price increases in the process. Losses in the financial and tech sectors negated gains in telecoms, energy and property shares.
Trading volumes were not as high as usual because of today’s holiday, and the markets closed early.

How markets performed

The S&P 500 ended 0.5%, or 13.49 points, lower at 2,713.22. Five of its 11 biggest sectors showed losses for the day, led by the tech sector with a drop of 1.4%.

The technology share sell-off became worse after reports that Micron Technology has been temporarily banned from selling certain memory chips in China. This sent semiconductor share prices down sharply.

Financial shares also dropped by 1%, and consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.6%. Energy shares, meanwhile, ended 0.7% higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day at 24,174.82, 132.36 (0.5%) points lower.

The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 65.01 points, or 0.9%, to 7,502.67. The Russell 2000 index for small cap stocks went against the trend to close 5.33 points higher (0.3%) at 1,660.42.

Main driving forces

Yesterday’s losses were caused by falling financial and tech shares, but it’s important not to read too much into this given the low trading volumes. US benchmarks started the day significantly higher after a deal on immigration issues in Germany caused European share prices to increase.

However, the uncertainty over international trade is still heavily weighing on the market, with President Trump’s threats to levy tariffs on as much as $50bn of Chinese imports scheduled to become a reality on Friday.