US OPEN: Wall Street opens lower on US-China tensions

• Rising trade tensions between China and the U.S.
• US Retail Sales plunge at record pace
• Apple (AAPL.US) opens lower

US indices fell on Friday on the back of a record plunge in U.S. retail sales and rising trade tensions between China and the U.S. Trump administration decided to block semiconductor shipments to China's Huawei Technologies.  In response, China is set to put US companies in an "unreliable entity list", which could mean launching investigations and imposing restrictions on Qualcomm, Cisco Systems and Apple, as well as suspend the purchase of Boeing airplanes, the Global Times reported.

A renewed Sino-U.S. trade war could exacerbate the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.
"The overarching concern that we've had as this epidemic has worked its way around the globe is that US-China relations are heading in the wrong direction and that can cause a worse economic effect than the pandemic itself," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

U.S. monthly retail sales fell by 16.4% in April, a record. Analysts expected a decline of 12.3%. Core retail sales —which exclude auto, gas, food and building materials sales — dropped 15.3%. Total industrial production in the US fell 11.2 percent from a month earlier in April 2020, its largest drop in the 101-year history of the index and compared to market expectations of an 11.5 percent decline.

S&P500 (US500) is testing key resistance level at 2828.3 As long as the price sits below it, the downward move looks to be more probable. However If buyers manage to break above it, an upward impulse towards 2865.9 pts could be launched. Source: xStation5

Apple (AAPL.US) – opened lower today due to negative reports from China. At the moment buyers are trying to fill the  bearish price gap. Should upbeat moods prevail, a bullish impulse towards resistance at $311.40 per share could be launched. On the other hand, if sellers regain control, then the support at $298.48 may be at risk. Source: xStation5

JD.com (JD.US) –  stocks were up 3.5% after the   e-commerce retailer from China beat market expectations by a wide margin on both the top and bottom lines for its latest quarter. Company reported a 24.8% increase in the number of annual active customer accounts compared to the same period from last year and mobile active daily users up 46%.

Applied Materials (AMAT.US) stocks rose 4% in extended trading after  reported second-quarter financial results. The manufacturing company earned 89 cents per share excluding some items on revenue of $3.96 billion. Analysts anticipated earnings of 94 cents per share on revenue of $4.13 billion.

NortonLifeLock (NLOK.US)— reported better than expected quarterly results. The cyber-security company earned 26 cents per share excluding some items with revenue of $610 million, while Wall Street expected earnings of 19 cents per share on revenue of $601 million. 

Aurora Cannabis (ACB.US) – reported a smaller loss for its latest quarter, with sales of cannabis jumping 39% from a year ago as customers in the U.S. and Canada stockpiled products due to spread of the pandemic.

Walt Disney (DIS.US) – made deal with union workers at Walt Disney World on employee safeguards. The deal removes a significant obstacle to Disney’s reopening plans for its theme parks.