(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 10 ott - US shares were trading broadly lower, reversing earlier gains, as investors fear for a new trade offensive from US president Donald Trump and amid a government shutdown showing no sign of resolving.

The US president threatened to cancel his upcoming meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and to impose a 'massive increase of Tariffs' on Chinese imports to the US over export controls that Beijing intends to impose on rare earths.

With the dearth of data triggered by the ongoing federal stoppage, investors poured on data showing that the University of Michigan's preliminary US consumer sentiment edged down to 55.0 in October from 55.1 the previous month, missing expectations for a reading of 54.1.

Concern is growing that a protracted shutdown of government offices could leave the Federal Reserve in a tough place to gauge the health of the economy as it prepares for its next interest rate meeting later this month.

The Senate shut up shop late Thursday and is not due to return until Tuesday.

It emerged yesterday that some furloughed federal employees will return to work to publish the September consumer price index scheduled for next week.

With economic data at a premium, investors are turning their focus to the new earnings season which kicked off this week but that begins in earnest next week with big bank results.

At 1741 GMT, the Dow Jones was down 502.20 points, or 1.08%, at 45,856.22 points.

The S&P 500 was 106.88 points, or 1.59%, lower at 6,628.25 points.

The Nasdaq was losing 505.34 points, or 2.19%, at 22,518.29.

points.

(RADIOCOR) 10-10-25 19:52:49 (0617) 5 NNNN