Chip stock down as a result of China-U.S. trade war

The U.S. is putting its decision to relieve the Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. on hold after China suspended its purchase of U.S. agricultural products, according to a Bloomberg News report.

President Donald Trump last month agreed to give “timely licensing decisions” to allow a slew of tech companies including Google and Broadcom to sell to the Chinese telecom giant. But the latest escalation in the trade war made the administration reconsider the move, Bloomberg News said, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department has vetted the applications to resume sales, said last week he’s received 50 requests and that a decision on them was pending. 

American businesses require a special license to supply goods to Huawei after the U.S. added the Chinese telecommunications giant to a trade blacklist in May over national-security concerns. 

Chip stocks came under pressure following the news. Micron Technology and Advanced Micron Devices both traded more than one percent lower than the premarket while Skyworks Solutions slipped to .7 percent.

Meanwhile, Huawei has offered first details about its new operating system designed to replace Google’s Android on its smartphones, as the tech giant races to develop backups to American technology following its U.S. blacklisting.

Huawei’s new operating system, called Harmony OS, is intended to run on all of Huawei’s consumer gadgets including its hugely popular smartphones.