Huawei ban clouds U.S.-China trade talks, tech sector

A U.S. bid to block China’s Huawei Technologies from buying vital American technology threw into question prospects for sales at some of the largest tech companies and drew a sharp rebuke from Beijing, which said the move could hurt trade talks.

Shares of Huawei’s U.S. suppliers fell on fears the Chinese firm would be forced to stop buying American chips, software and other components after the Trump administration banned it from buying U.S. technology without special approval.

Huawei, the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker, said that losing access to U.S. suppliers “will do significant economic harm to the American companies” and affect “tens of thousands of American jobs.”

“Huawei will seek remedies immediately and find a resolution to this matter,” the company said in a statement.

The U.S. crackdown, announced on Wednesday, was the latest shot fired in a U.S.-China trade war that is rattling financial markets and threatening to derail a slowing global economy.