Stocks slide amid trade worries, Qualcomm leads tech lower
Stocks pulled back on Wednesday as trade worries increased while declines in Qualcomm and retailer shares also dampened market sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 100.72 points to 25,776.61 as Apple lagged. The slipped 0.3% to 2,856.27, with the tech sector sliding 0.6%. The Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.5% to 7,750.84.

"A few weeks ago, it looked like a trade deal was imminent. The market was about 3% higher than it is now. I would think that if we got a resolution, we'd go back to around those levels," said Ed Keon, chief investment strategist at QMA. "On the other hand, if we do go into a full-blown trade war … then I suspect it would be a much bigger event for the market."

"If the downside is much more than the upside, and you don't have a way of assessing the odds of the downside scenario happening, the prudent thing to do is to pull back to a more neutral position," Keon said.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC's Ylan Mui that a trip to Beijing to retake trade negotiations has not been scheduled yet. This lowered hope of a speedy resolution to the U.S.-China trade war. Adding to the negative sentiment, President Donald Trump said he would not work with Democrats on an infrastructure bill if they kept investigating him.

Restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei have led China to rethink its entire economic relationship with the U.S., according to a report from The South China Morning Post. The report said China is considering dropping purchases of natural gas from the U.S. In 2017, China bought $6.3 billion worth of U.S. crude and liquefied natural gas.