us stocks were sharply lower tuesday morning resuming a pullback as investors shunned assets viewed as risky following weak china international trade data for july bank shares were also in focus after moodys investors service said it may downgrade its credit ratings on six major us banks the dow rose 408 points or 12 on monday while the sp 500 spx gained 09 and the nasdaq advanced 06 chinas exports fell 145 for the year to july the biggest decline since the outbreak of the covid19 pandemic in february 2020 while imports slid 124 worse than forecast the news highlighted that the worlds second biggest economy is being dragged lower by weakness in global demand and a domestic slowdown said jim reid strategist at deutsche bank assets sensitive to china demand were hit with industrial commodities like crude oil and copper lower shares in londonlisted miners were under pressure perceived havens were firmer with the dollar dxy gaining ground and government bonds attracting buyers pushing treasury yields bxtmubmusd10y lower also weighing on sentiment was a possible downgrade by moodys of six major us banks adding to concerns about the fragility of the financial sector as it deals with the sharp rise interest rates since march 2022 stocks fell last week with market watchers looking for continued consolidation after a strong 2023 rally led largely by megacap tech stocks that has seen the nasdaq composite rise more than 30 year to date while the sp 500 advanced toward its alltime high from january 2022 we believe the market has entered a consolidation phase within an uptrend that will likely last 13 months with support at 4328 for the sp 500 said kevin dempter analyst at renaissance macro research in a tuesday note patience will be the most important discipline for investors during this period especially within megacap tech given the overbought conditions and sentiment extremes in the space he wrote ideally we would look to take advantage of oversold conditions in uptrends but with a focus on a longerterm trade horizon and not tactical data showed the us trade deficit narrowed by 41 to 655 billion in july philadelphia fed president patrick harker said policy makers may be at the point where we can be patient and hold rates steady this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal