Major US stock markets closed in the red, as the sharp escalation of the trade dispute between China and the United States forced investors to look for safer assets.

On Monday evening, Donald Trump said that he asked the US trade representative to allocate Chinese goods worth $ 200 billion for imposing additional tariffs of 10%. "The new fees will come into force if China refuses to change its practice, and if it insists on the new tariffs that it recently announced," the US president said. This step was followed after on Friday the US announced that they would impose a 25-percent tariff on Chinese products to $ 50 billion. Tariffs for the initial list of goods worth about $ 34 billion will be introduced on July 6. According to the representative of the White House, the measure proposed on Monday is a response to Beijing's decision to raise tariffs for US exports by $ 50 billion.

A certain influence on the course of trading was provided by the US data. The Ministry of Trade reported that bookings of new homes rose to almost 11-year highs in May on the back of accelerating both single-family and multi-unit segments, but the second monthly reduction in construction permits suggests that the growth in the housing market will remain moderate. The laying of new homes jumped 5.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.350 million units last month. This was the highest level since July 2007. Data for April were slightly revised - to 1.286 million units instead of the previously announced rate of 1.287 million units. The building permit decreased by 4.6 percent to 1.301 million units, the lowest since September 2017. Economists predicted that bookings of new homes will increase to 1.310 million units, and permits will be reduced to 1.350 million units.

Most of the components of DOW finished trading in the red (23 of 30). Outsider were shares of The Boeing Company (BA, -4.08%). Leader of growth were shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ, + 2.20%).

Almost all sectors of S & P recorded a fall. The largest decrease was observed in the sector of industrial goods (-2.2%). The utilities sector grew most (+ 0.6%).

At closing:

Dow 24,700.14 -287.33 -1.15%

S&P 500 2,762.57 -11.18 -0.40%

Nasdaq 100 7,725.59 -21.44 -0.28%

U.S. stock-index futures fell sharply on Tuesday, as the U.S. President Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, escalating further trade tensions between the world's two largest economies and triggering a flight from riskier assets.

Global Stocks:

(company / ticker / price / change ($/%) / volume)

AT&T (T) resumed with a Neutral at JP Morgan; target $36

Verizon (VZ) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank