Stocks fall on trade rhetoric

U.S. stocks fell for a fourth straight day after President Donald Trump’s threat to escalate the trade war with China roiled technology and multinational shares. The dollar climbed and Treasuries fell as wage gains bolstered the prospects for further rate hikes.

The Nasdaq 100 Index capped its worst week since March as Apple slumped on its warning that the Trump administration’s musing over levying virtually everything imported from China would hit a broad range of its products. The S&P 500’s weekly drop was the most since June, and Boeing led declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The dollar rallied versus major peers. The 10-year Treasury yield pushed above 2.94 percent.

The latest salvo from Trump in the trade war rattled U.S. stocks Friday when he signaled he’s ready to target a sum of goods equal to virtually all imports from China. An August jobs report that showed a healthy labor market with signs of wage inflation that could clear the way for two more rate hikes this year.

China’s richest man to retire

Alibaba’s co-founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, said he planned to step down from the Chinese e-commerce giant on Monday to pursue philanthropy in education, a changing of the guard for the $420 billion internet company. A former English teacher, Ma started Alibaba in 1999 and built it into one of the world’s most consequential e-commerce and digital payments companies, transforming how Chinese people shop and pay for things. That fueled his net worth to more than $40 billion, making him China’s richest man. Ma is retiring as Beijing and state-owned enterprises increasingly play more interventionist roles with companies.