These giant US companies could suffer if China trade talks go south

Chances of a breakthrough don't seem great though, even if there may be a willingness on the part of China to do a deal.

Trump told reporters Thursday that "we're very close to doing something with China but I don't know that I want to do it" since "what we have right now is billions and billions of dollars coming into the United States in the form of tariffs or taxes."

That stance may further irritate China, and any escalation of a trade war could make life a lot more difficult for some well-known, blue chip American firms that generate a significant chunk of their sales from China.

According to data compiled by FactSet, 57 companies in the S&P 500 get more than 10% of their sales from China. The list is dominated by tech giants like Qualcomm (QCOM), Texas Instruments (TXN), Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Several consumer companies have made a big bet on China as well.

Tiffany (TIF), McDonald's (MCD), Starbucks (SBUX), Nike (NKE), Coach owner Tapestry (TPR) and KFC parent Yum Brands (YUM) all derived more than 10% of their latest sales from China.

And it isn't just tech and consumer products companies in the S&P 500 that could be hurt by any further escalation of trade tensions with China.

Water heater and boiler maker A.O. Smith (AOS), auto parts manufacturer Aptiv (APTV), MasterCard (MA) and Dow components Visa (V), Boeing (BA), Chevron (CVX) and 3M (MMM) all generate at least 10% of their sales from China.

Tariffs starting to take their toll on Chinese economy?

It's still not clear what the long-term impact of a protracted trade spat with China will be. But some multinational companies have started to warn that China's economy is starting to slow -- and that it is hurting US firms doing business there.

These companies could face new hurdles if the Chinese government retaliates with a further crackdown on American businesses. Chinese consumers may decide to stop buying American products too -- in China and abroad.

In fact, Tiffany just warned this week in its latest quarterly earnings report that it was being hurt by a slowdown in spending by Chinese tourists at its US and Hong Kong locations. The stock plunged on the news.

But Tiffany didn't seem to think that anti-American sentiment was the reason for tourists pulling back. In fact, the company said it has posted strong sales growth in its Asia-Pacific unit in the third quarter, led by double-digit increases in China.

"We can speculate on the reasons for the tourist spending slowdown outside of China but the reality is that the Tiffany brand is appealing to Chinese customers as evidenced by the continued strong sales growth in Mainland China in the quarter," said Tiffany CEO Alessandro Bogliolo on a conference call with analysts.

McDonald's also doesn't believe that the trade war is hurting its sales in China. Chinese consumers are still eating Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets.

"We're not really seeing any meaningful anti-American sentiment given some of the geopolitical issues that clearly exist between the countries," said McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook on the company's earnings call last month.

Easterbrook was talking about a recent trip he made to China and added that McDonald's is increasingly being viewed more in China as a "locally-owned business of a global brand."

But even if Chinese consumers continue to support American brands, there's another potential problem for US companies.

If, as Trump believes, the US has the upper hand in trade talks and can exert more economic pain on China with tariffs, the Chinese consumer may start to feel the pinch and buy fewer US products -- even if it's not for political reasons.

A.O. Smith CEO Kevin Wheeler said in the company's latest earnings release last month that it was already experiencing weakness in China -- and he suggested that the trade spat was one of the reasons for that.

"We believe our China sales will continue to be negatively impacted by significantly slower housing growth caused by deteriorating consumer confidence related to a weakening economy and international trade issues," Wheeler said.

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Ancient tools found in North Africa could 'rewrite human origin story'

A collection of 2.4-million-year-old stone tools has been found in Algeria, throwing into question the long-held theory that humanity emerged in East Africa.

The discovery of the 250 tools, found alongside 296 animal bones, suggests early humans were butchering meat in North Africa about 600,000 years before scientists had thought they arrived in the region.

It was previously believed that early humans, known as hominins, originated and stayed in East Africa for hundreds of millions of years, before beginning to move across the continent.

But the new discovery "shows that our ancestors ventured into all corners of Africa, not just East Africa," Mohamed Sahnouni, who led the project and detailed the findings in the journal Science, said in a statement.

"The evidence from Algeria changes the earlier view that East Africa was the cradle of humankind. Actually, the whole of Africa was the cradle of humankind," he added.

The findings were made at the Ain Boucherit site near the city of Setif, about 200 miles east of Algeria's capital, Algiers.

They resemble similar tools, known as Oldowan, which had previously only been found in the east of the continent, and predate other tools found nearby in the north by at least 600,000 years.

Researchers from Algeria, France, Spain and Australia were involved in the project, which involved 25 years of excavations.

Further discoveries possible

"The effective use of sharp-edged tools at Ain Boucherit suggests that our ancestors were not mere scavengers," says Isabel Cáceres, of Spanish archaeological organization IPHES, who was involved with the project.

"It is not clear at this moment whether they hunted, but the evidence clearly shows that they were successfully competing with carnivores and enjoyed first access to animal carcasses," she adds.

East Africa hasn't yet lost its status as the cradle of humanity -- earlier tools dating back at least 2.6 million years have previously been found in that part of the continent.

But the authors made the tantalizing prediction that even older relics could still be uncovered near the site in Algeria, potentially opening up new avenues in the search for the origin of our species.

"Now that Ain Boucherit has yielded Oldowan archaeology estimated to 2.4 million years ago, Northern Africa and the Sahara may be a repository of further archaeological materials," they write.

"We suggest that hominin fossils and Oldowan artifacts as old as those documented in East Africa could be discovered in North Africa as well," they add.

'Multiple origin scenario'

While no human remains were found at the dig, the tools and animal bones showed strong evidence of human activity.

Some of the bones featured cut marks, indicating an early form of butchery, the authors wrote.

The discovery could indicate a "multiple origin scenario," where humans were making and using tools in different locations across the continent at the same time, they added.

Alternatively, it could mean that a "rapid expansion of stone tool manufacture" took place in the early days of humankind's existence.

Stone tools were found in China earlier this year that dated back 2.12 million years.

The archaeologists behind that project said their finds suggested that early humans moved out from East Africa and into what is now Asia.

The latest findings could tell a similar story, if earlier remains in North Africa are not found. But they would imply that humans were moving west, as well as east, from their birthplace.

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