At the close, the Dow Jones industrial index had risen 0.1 percent, the broad S&P 500 was unchanged, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite had fallen 0.3 percent.
Even before the stock market opened, President Trump had set the nervous tone by accusing China of "completely breaking the agreement with us" regarding a deal with the US from earlier in May. This concerns the two countries putting extremely high levels of import tariffs on hold to make room for negotiations.
Trump did not specify how China had broken the agreement between the world's two largest economies.
But it was enough to get the New York stock exchange to trade on the downside for much of the day. This, despite May otherwise having seen a very good trend for Wall Street.
No Clear Messages
Now, great uncertainty is again being created around what applies and whether the stance towards Beijing should be tightened again. Moreover, on Friday, the US Finance Minister Scott Bessent described the tariff talks with China as a bit stuck.
Stock traders are demanding clear and straightforward messages about what applies going forward, but none are in sight.
– We expect the markets to remain headline-driven, especially by headlines related to tariffs, says Clark Bellin, investment manager at the financial advisory firm Bellwether Wealth, to Bloomberg.
In the background, media reports are also haunting about the US government being on its way to ban American companies from selling software to China that is crucial for the production of data chips.
Furthermore, the legality surrounding many of Trump's tariffs has been stuck in American court trials in recent days.
Tech Companies Affected
Not least, the tech sector was hit on Friday, where many companies have significant exposure to China.
Four of the very index-heavy tech companies that are collectively called "The Magnificent Seven" – fell – except for software giant Microsoft, Facebook, and iPhone manufacturer Apple.
Google owner Alphabet and e-commerce giant Amazon saw smaller falls. Electric car manufacturer Tesla and semiconductor manufacturer Nvidia lost 3.3 and 2.9 percent, respectively.
During the week, the industrial index rose 1.6 percent, the S&P 500 went up 1.9 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index 2 percent.
In May, the Dow Jones industrial index rose 3.9 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite index climbed 6.2 and 9.6 percent, respectively.
