Wall Street pushed down by weak data, trade worries

U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as investors worried about global growth prospects after data showed U.S. factory activity shrank in August for the first time since 2016 and the United States and China imposed new tariffs on each other over the weekend.

Investors fled riskier assets as the latest round of tariffs and the lack of a date for a resumption of U.S.-China talks gnawed at any hopes for a resolution to the long-running trade war, which has rattled markets for months and weighed on world economies.

Compounding the uncertainty, the Institute for Supply Management said early in the day that its index of national factory activity dropped to 49.1, compared with a reading of 51.1 estimated by analysts polled by Reuters.