The stock market’s strong start to the year stalled on Tuesday, amid growing pessimism about the prospects for a deal to defuse trade tensions between China and the United States.

The S&P 500, which had enjoyed its best start to a year since 1987 through the end of trading on Friday, ended Tuesday down 1.4 percent, the market’s second-worst loss of the year.

Stocks slumped from the outset, and the selling worsened through the day after The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration had rejected an offer from China to hold preparatory talks ahead of high-level trade meetings in Washington later this month.

Such advance discussions are thought to be an important step toward cementing an agreement between the world’s two largest economies before March 1. After that date, tariffs on some $200 billion of Chinese goods are scheduled to rise sharply, which would send the trade war into a new and more serious phase.

Trade-sensitive tech and industrial shares were the worst performers. Microsoft, Facebook and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, all slumped. Semiconductor makers — much of whose revenue comes from sales in China — tumbled, with Nvidia and Micron dropping more than 5 percent.

The major industrial exporters Caterpillar and Boeing fell 3.2 percent and 1.9 percent respectively.

The tone from industrial firms that reported earnings on Tuesday did little to improve the mood. Shares of the tool manufacturer Stanley Black & Decker tumbled more than 15 percent after the company offered a disappointing outlook for 2019.

“We tried to make it very clear that the economic backdrop is one of slowing growth,” James M. Loree, chief executive of Stanley Black & Decker, said on a conference call with analysts.

The trade war seems to be a growing source of weakness for the global economy. On Monday, China reported that its economy grew at its slowest rate, 6.6 percent, since 1990, amid a slowdown of its export sector.

The report came the same day as the International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast for global growth in 2019 to 3.5 percent from 3.7 percent, citing, in part, slowing worldwide trade.

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