US President Donald Trump has revived anxiety over trade wars by threatening to pull out of the WTO and impose new tariffs on China (Drew Angerer)

New York (AFP) – US stocks were mostly flat at the open on Friday, after President Donald Trump revived anxiety over trade wars by threatening to pull out of the WTO and impose new tariffs on China.

The final trading day of August, heading into a long US holiday weekend, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was barely changed at 25,968.04 about 15 minutes into the session.

The broader S&P 500 was flat at 2,900.34, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.2 percent to 8,104.68, helped by a rising Apple.

Trump’s tough talk on trade deflated four days of record markets on Thursday, especially after he said he wants to move ahead with steep import taxes on $200 billion in Chinese goods as soon as next week.

He also rejected an EU offer of zero tariffs on autos, something he himself has often demanded.

Meanwhile, optimism about the prospects of seeing successful talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement in Washington may be waning as officials said roadblocks remained between the US and Canada.

And with US markets closed on Monday, volumes are lower so price movements can be more volatile.

Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com said “a lot of market participants aren’t going to be actual participants in today’s trading.”

“With the S&P 500 up 0.9 percent for the week and 3.0 percent for the month, plenty of participants will be content with the notion that their work is done until after Labor Day,” he added.

Apple gained 1.4 percent, while Coca-Cola was off 0.3 percent after announcing an agreement to acquire British coffee brand Costa Limited.

Athletic attire retailer Lululemon Athletica surged 15 percent on solid earnings news.

Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by Siliconeer and is published from a syndicated feed. Siliconeer does not assume any liability for the above story. Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Content copyright AFP.