After 3 up days, S&P 500 falls on trade announcement

NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks finished lower on June 11 despite positive movement in the US-China trade conflict and a benign US inflation report.

Following two days of talks in London, top US and Chinese negotiators announced a “framework” agreement late on June 10 that included Chinese concessions on rare earth materials and Washington allowing Chinese students to study at US universities.

But stocks fell in what Briefing.com described as a “sell the news” response to a breakthrough that had been largely priced in.

The broad-based S&P 500, which rose the last three days, finished down 0.3 per cent at 6,022.24.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat at 42,865.77, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.5 per cent to 19,615.88.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned a broader deal with China would take a “longer process”, saying it was possible to rebalance economic ties with Beijing only if Beijing proved a “reliable partner in trade negotiations”.

And for partners “negotiating in good faith”, Mr Bessent told a congressional committee, there could be an extended pause before higher threatened tariff rates take effect in July.

Besides trade, markets digested key inflation data.

Consumer prices rose 2.4 per cent compared with a year ago, up from a 2.3 per cent reading for the prior month, a modest uptick that analysts said still did not fully reflect the impact from Mr Trump’s tariffs.

Mr Sam Stovall, of CFRA Research, described the June 11 session as a “roller coaster”, positing that the negative finale may reflect unease at reports Mr Trump could appoint a “shadow” Federal Reserve chairman to try to influence monetary policy without firing Fed chairman Jerome Powell.

Mr Stovall also highlighted the possibility that “the market is overbought and due for some sort of digestion of gains”.

Among those falling, large tech names including Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and Apple lost more than 1 per cent. AFP