US equity markets fell sharply but settled well of their lows of the session as President Trump cast fresh doubts over a US-China trade deal - Dow fell -280-points or -1.01%, paring an earlier ~457-point or -1.7% decline. Trade sensitive stocks bore the brunt of the selling, with Caterpillar Inc down -2.0%, 3M Co – and Apple Inc -1.8%. Major banks (Goldman Sachs Inc down -2.8% and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co -1.8%) were also under pressure from a sharp pullback in bond yields. The broader S&P500 -0.66%, similarly paring an earlier decline of 1.7%. NASDAQ settled -0.55% lower after trading down as much as -1.6%. All three benchmarks now sit more than >2% below their all time peaks touched on 27 November. In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, PepsiCo Inc fell -0.3% after saying it planned to acquire BFY Brands Inc for an undisclosed sum. Separately, AK Steel Holding Corp rallied +4.15% after the steel maker agreed to be bought out by iron ore mining company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (down -10.7%) in an all-scrip deal. Under terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2020. AK Steel shareholders will receive 0.40 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs common stock for each AK Steel share they own.
