Stocks slide on trade-war concerns, Qualcomm leads tech lower

Stocks pulled back on Wednesday as trade worries increased while declines in Qualcomm and retailer shares also dampened market sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 53 points as Intel lagged. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, with the tech sector sliding 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite also fell 0.2%.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC's Ylan Mui that a trip to Beijing to retake trade negotiations has not been scheduled yet. This lowered hope of a speedy resolution to the U.S.-China trade war.

President Donald Trump followed through with his threat to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods from 10% to 25% earlier this month. China immediately responded by upping the tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods to as high as 25%.

This — as well as restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei — have led China to rethink its entire economic relationship with the U.S., according to a report from The South China Morning Post. The report said China is considering dropping purchases of natural gas from the U.S. In 2017, China bought $6.3 billion worth of U.S. crude and liquefied natural gas.

President Donald Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping on November 9, 2017 in Beijing, China.

Thomas Peter-Pool | Getty Images

Qualcomm shares fell 10.4% after a U.S. judge ruled the chipmaker violated antitrust law by unlawfully suppressing competition in the cellphone chip space. The news dragged down the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) down by 1.4%.

Shares of Qualcomm have been under pressure all month, falling 9.7% through Tuesday's close.

The U.S. recently added Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to a trade blacklist, which puts curbs on its ability to do business in America. However, some of those restrictions were eased on Monday. Relief over Washington's relaxation of curbs against Huawei helped boost U.S. stocks in the previous session.

"This will weaken the Huawei ban by US in our opinion and gives leverage to China in chip battle heading into G-20 talks," Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in an email referring to the ruling. "Qualcomm is dealt a blow with this FTC ruling as the main US 5G arms dealer, Huawei leverage is strengthened on 5G."

Retailers were also under pressure after the release of quarterly results from companies in the sector. Lowe's fell more than 11% on weaker-than-expected earnings. Nordstrom, meanwhile, dropped 9.4% as its quarterly earnings and revenue missed expectations.

Target was the bright spot among retailers. The company's stock rose more than 9% as its earnings and revenue topped analyst expectations. Same-store sales, a key metric for retailers, also surpassed estimates.

Investors also looked ahead to the release of the U.S. central bank's meeting minutes. The Federal Reserve is expected to provide insights into the May 1 meeting, when policymakers left interest rates unchanged and signaled little appetite to adjust them any time soon.

Ahead of the minutes' release, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, a voting member of the central bank's policymaking committee, said the Fed may have raised rates too much last year. "Rates are at a good place in the U.S. right now, if anything we are a little restrictive I would say," he told Bloomberg News. "I am concerned we may have slightly overdone it with our December rate hike but I was pleased that the committee pivoted."

—CNBC's Sam Meredith contributed to this report.

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