US Market extends decline on rising tension with China

The US stocks declined for third straight session on Friday, 18 September 2020, with the major averages finished firmly into negative territory, on rising tensions between the world's two largest economies after Trump administration announcement to ban Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat from US app stores starting late on Sunday.

At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 244.56 points, or 0.88%, to 27,657.42. The S&P 500 index fell 37.54 points, or 1.12%, to 3,319.47. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 116.99 points, or 1.07%, to 10,793.28.

The sell-off wiped out the last of the solid gains the market saw to start the week. For the week, the Dow edged down by less than a tenth of a%, while the broader Nasdaq and S&P 500 both fell by 0.6%.

The weakness on Wall Street came as the US Commerce Department announcement on Friday the Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok will not be available for download in the US starting late on Sunday. Those who have TikTok downloaded will not receive updates. The wildly popular video-sharing app could be banned in the US if no deal is struck by November 12 between TikTok's owner ByteDance and Oracle Corp to create the new company, TikTok Global.

Meanwhile, selloff also fuelled amid renewed concerns about the economic outlook following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. While the Fed indicated it plans to leave interest rates at near-zero levels for years to come, traders seem skeptical that will be enough to support the economy.

Shares of technology companies declined on worries that their prices have grown too expensive following their virtuosic performance through the pandemic, tech giant Apple (AAPL) showing a significant drop. Big-name tech companies like Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) also posted notable losses.

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Consumer Sentiment Improves Further In September - US consumer sentiment index climbed to 78.9 in September from 74.1 in August, the University of Michigan released a report on Friday. The index reached its highest level since March but is still well below the pre-pandemic reading of 101.0 seen in February. The much bigger than expected increase by the consumer sentiment index reflected improvements in consumers' assessment of current conditions as well as their outlook for the future. The current economic conditions index jumped to 87.5 in September 82.9 in August, while the index of consumer expectations surged up to 73.3 from 68.5.

US Leading Economic Index Suggests Slowing Pace Of Growth US leading economic index jumped by 1.2% in August after surging up by 2% in July and spiking by 3.1% in June, a report released by the Conference Board showed. The report said the coincident economic index also rose by 0.6% in August after jumping by 1.2% in July and soaring by 3.9% in June. Meanwhile, the lagging economic index fell by 0.6% in August, matching the decrease seen in the previous month. The lagging index plunged by 3.5% in June.

Among Indian ADR, INFOSYS fell 1.24% to $13.50, Azure Power Global inclined 3.1% to $32.89, Wipro shed 1.66% to $4.75, and Tata Motors fell 1.2% to $9.88. HDFC Bank fell 2.47% to $48.99, Dr Reddys Labs rose 8.81% to $72.41, ICICI Bank was down 0.59% to $10.04, and Vedanta fell 2.51% to $6.99. WNS Holdings fell 3.24% to $63.56.

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