Tensions of a trade war between China and the United States were ignited last week by President Donald Trump's order to impose $50 billion tariffs on Chinese products. The president signed off the tariffs as a response to complaints that China has always required American firms to share their tech in order to do business in that country.
Trump's move shock Wall Street with investors fearing that rattling China with such huge tariffs would in turn cause it to retaliate fast and hard. Beijing responded to the Trump Administration through its Commerce Ministry saying that would as well impose tariffs worth $3 billion on US products.
Tensions of a trade war between appears to have cooled down on Monday following reports that US and Chinese officials were busy engaging to try and prevent the situation from escalating. The news saw market futures trade sharply higher, with stocks such as Microsoft having a great day.
Nonetheless, social media stocks were still under the radar, following last week's revelations of how Facebook user data was harvested and used by a third-party firm without users' consent in the 2016 US elections. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since apologized and tried to protect the image of his brand, FB shares still fell by 1% in pre-trading session. Last week, the stock plummeted 14 percent.
