May 30 (UPI) — President Donald Trump’s planned news conference on China shook up stocks early Friday, but the major indexes mostly recovered by the end of the day after his announcement revealed no changes to trade with Beijing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped more than 360 points in early Friday trading, but made up most of the losses to end the day down 17.53 points, less than 0.1 percent.
The S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.3 percent at the end of trading.
The three major indexes finished the month of May with strong gains after a turbulent two months in the markets. The Dow finished up 4.2 percent, the S&P 4.5 percent and the Nasdaq 6.7 percent.
The Trump administration has suggested it would punish China for reining in Hong Kong’s autonomy against the “One Country, Two Systems” approach it has operated under since 1997 when British rule ended. But instead of making any announcements on a China trade deal Friday, Trump said he’s taking steps to revoke Hong Kong’s favored trade status with the United States.
Large pro-democracy demonstrations, which turned violent at times last year after China tried to impose a change in extradition policy between Hong Kong and the mainland, made Beijing nervous and it accused the United States and others of encouraging the controversy.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that he notified Congress that Hong Kong is essentially no longer autonomous from mainland China after the communist country proposed a far-reaching new security law targeting pro-democracy protesters and foreign influences in the city.
