U.S. equities plunged Thursday — putting the main stock index in negative territory for the year — after Canadian authorities arrested the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei at the request of U.S. authorities.
The arrest Wednesday in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, who faces extradition to the United States, raises the stakes for, and possibly threatens, the recently restarted U.S.-China trade talks.
The specific charge or charges against the 46-year-old daughter of Huawei’s founder were not disclosed, but U.S. officials have been investigating the company for possibly violating American trade sanctions against Iran.
Investors were rattled. The intraday decline in the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average — down more than 700 points at one point in late-morning trading — put the widely watched index into negative territory for 2018. The S&P 500 also plunged into negative territory for the year. This would leave only the Nasdaq Composite in the plus column for 2018.
