New York (AFP)

Wall Street declined Friday shortly after the opening, weighed down by China's decision to impose new tariffs on products imported from the United States.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lost 0.44% to 26,137.27 points around 13:45 GMT.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological color, fell by 0.59% to 7,944.30 points and the S & P 500 index widened by 0.48% to 2,908.86 points.

The New York Stock Exchange closed on Thursday, with Dow Jones up 0.19% and Nasdaq down 0.36%.

China announced Friday its intention to impose new tariffs on $ 75 billion of imports from the United States in two stages, on September 1 and December 15, in retaliation for the additional customs duties provided by to establish soon Washington at the same dates but on 300 billion dollars of imported Chinese products.

These additional Chinese tariffs will range between 5% and 10% and will cover 5,078 US products, said the Chinese customs authorities.

Beijing also announced the imposition of tariffs of 25% on US automobiles as well as 5% on auto parts, as of December 15th.

China temporarily suspended car surcharges in December 2018 as a sign of goodwill in its trade talks with the Trump administration, and announced in April that the taxes would not be reimposed immediately.

"China's retaliation pale against US tariffs in terms of monetary impact, but it reminds us that the trade battle is not about to end," commented Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.

"For the markets, this means that global growth will slow down when there are already unrelated concerns about tariffs," he said.

China announced its new tariffs shortly before a crucial speech by US Federal Reserve (Fed) boss Jerome Powell, who speaks Friday at 1400 GMT from Jackson Hole in Wyoming.

Mr. Powell will try to convince the US Central Bank of how to extend the longest period of expansion in the United States.

It could give indications of a further drop in key rates that the Fed modestly dropped in late July for the first time in more than ten years.

In the bond market, the 10-year interest rate on US debt was down slightly, to 1.60%.

© 2019 AFP