Dow drops 200 points on record retail-sales decline, escalating US-China tensions

• US equities slumped Friday amid jarring retail-sales data and intensifying US-China trade tensions.
• Consumer spending tumbled an unprecedented 16.4% in April, nearly double the previous record contraction set in March, the Commerce Department announced Friday.
• The Trump administration said Friday it aims to block semiconductor shipments to Huawei Technologies. China state media fired back, saying the country would "restrict or investigate" US tech firms if such policy is implemented.
• Watch major indexes update live here.

US stocks dipped on Friday on dour retail sales data and escalating tensions between the US and China.

Consumer spending sank an unprecedeted 16.4% in April, the Commerce Department announced Friday. The figure is nearly double the previous record contraction of 8.3% decline seen in March.

The decline was more stark than economists expected. The median estimate compiled by Bloomberg expected a 12% drop.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET market open on Friday:

• S&P 500: 2,827.79, down 0.9%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 23,426.98, down 0.8% (198 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 8,853.57, down 1%

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Equities were already on the decline before the consumer-spending release, as escalating tensions between the Trump administration and China revived trade stresses. The White House is reportedly looking to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies on Friday, saying such policy "cuts off Huawei's efforts to undermine US export controls."

China fired back soon after, with the editor-in-chief of state-run Global Times tweeting the country would "restrict or investigate US companies such as Qualcomm, Cisco, and Apple" if the US blocked Huawei's supply chain.

Semiconductor stocks including Qualcomm and AMD slid more than 2% on the news.

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West Texas Intermediate crude oil gained as much as 4.8%, to $28.89 per barrel. The US is on pace for a more than 15% weekly increase, driven by widespread production cuts and signs of demand creeping back into the struggling market. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, rose 4.4%, to $32.50 per barrel, at intraday highs.

Friday's losses follow a 377-point gain for the Dow on Thursday. Surging bank stocks pulled indexes higher, overshadowing bleak labor market data. Weekly jobless claims reached 3 million last week, bringing the metric's eight-week total to more than 36 million. Though the latest update notched the sixth-straight decline for weekly claims, it still dwarfs average readings.

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