Wall Street opens sharply lower as investors react to China's retaliatory measures

Major equity indexes in the U.S. opened the day deep in the negative territory on Monday with China's announcement of tariff hikes on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports triggered a wave of flight-to-safety. While the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, is up nearly 27% on the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are both losing 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite is erasing 2.1%.

Disregarding U.S. President Trump's warnings, China’s finance ministry today announced that it decided to hike import tariffs ranging from 5% to 25% on 5,140 U.S. products worth about $60 billion effective June 1st. 

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the risk-sensitive Technology Index is losing 2.5% on the day while the falling Treasury bond yields weigh on the Financials Index, forcing it to drop more than 2%. There won't be any macroeconomic data releases on Friday and headlines surrounding the U.S.-China trade dispute is likely to continue to drive the market action.