U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Monday after protests in major Chinese cities against strict COVID-19 policies sparked concerns about economic growth, while Apple Inc (AAPL.O) slid on worries about a hit to iPhone production.
Shares of the Cupertino, California tech giant lost 2.6% and weighed heavily on the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) index as worker unrest at the world’s biggest iPhone factory in China fanned fears of a deeper hit to the already constrained production of higher-end phones.
Rare protests in major Chinese cities over the weekend against the country’s strict zero-COVID curbs are exacerbating worries about growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
“These protests are just evidence that this is a kind of a moving target where, will China continue to try to really constrain COVID’s spread?” said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.
“Or will they have more of a ‘living with COVID’ approach that we’ve seen in the United States and other countries?”
“We think COVID itself and China’s policy is one of the key variables for 2023 that would influence stock prices and investors,” Hainlin said.
