U.S. Stocks End Sharply Lower As Trump's Tweet On Stimulus Talks Triggers Sell-off

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday following a massive sell-off in the final hour after having spent much of the day's session in positive territory.

The Dow, which had surged to 28,354.48, ended the day with a loss of 375.88 points or 1.34% at 27,772.76. The Nasdaq plunged 177.88 points or 1.57% to settle at 11,154.60, while the S&P 500 slumped 47.66 points or 1.4% to 3,360.97.

U.S. President Donald Trump's tweet that he would end negotiations on a new fiscal stimulus package sent shivers and triggered the sell-off. Trump said he has instructed his administration's negotiators to stop stimulus discussions with Democrats until after the Nov.3 presidential election.

Boeing (BA) tumbled nearly 7%. General Electric (GE), Apple (APPL), American Express (AXP), Microsoft (MSFT), Merck (MRK) shed 2 to 3.6%.

Several other top stocks, including Caterpillar (CAT), Visa (V), JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Walt Disney (DIS) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) also ended notably lower.

Earlier in the day, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said during his speech at the National Association for Business Economics that the U.S. economic recovery U.S. economic recovery remained far from complete and the economy needs more fiscal support.

"The recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone for about an hour about coronavirus relief on Monday, but emerged without an agreement.

They were expected to talk again today, continuing a recent flurry of activity working towards a deal on legislation.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher on Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House from hospital coupled with Joe Biden's increasing lead in weekend polls in the U.S. presidential race helped reduce uncertainties surrounding the 2020 presidential election.

The major stock markets in Europe closed higher, shrugging off early weakness. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.07%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.12%, Germany's DAX climbed 0.61% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.48% up.