Trade war fears and a presidential attack on Amazon are rocking Wall Street.
The Dow dropped more than 500 points and the Nasdaq plunged about 3% on Monday. All three major indexes are now in the red for the year.
The sell-off came after President Trump once again attacked Amazon on Twitter. Amazon, one of the biggest drivers of the 2017 market rally, tumbled 5%.
Trump once again accused Amazon of taking advantage of the US Postal Service, and he suggested that Amazon does not pay its fair share of tax. In fact, Amazon pays the same lower rate that the post office charges other bulk shippers, and it collects sales tax in every state that charges it.
“You’ve got the president of the United States attacking a single company over what he considers to be unfair practices,” said Ian Winer, head of equities at Wedbush Securities.
Amazon wasn’t the only tech stock in trouble. Tesla, Netflix and Intel all dropped by at least 4%.
Wall Street is also fretting over the risk of a trade war with China. Beijing responded to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs on Monday by imposing tariffs on $3 billion of US imports. The tariffs apply to 128 products, ranging from pork and meet to steep pipes.
Trump plans to place additional tariffs on about $50 billion worth of Chinese goods — and Beijing has promised to respond.
