US stocks fall sharply as US-China trade war escalates

Stocks tumbled on Wall Street after President Donald Trump said he “hereby ordered” U.S. companies to consider alternatives to doing business in China. He also said he would respond to Beijing’s latest tariff increase later Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank nearly 500 points after the president made the announcements on Twitter.

Trump also said he was “ordering” UPS, Federal Express and Amazon to block any deliveries from China of the powerful opiod drug fentanyl. The stocks of all three companies fell as traders tried to understand what the implications for them were.