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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened lower on Tuesday amid persisting worries about trade tensions and losses posted by technology stocks on Wall Street overnight.Further, a trade agreement between the US and China continues to remain elusive with the two countries blaming each other for the delay.The FTSE 100 was down 24.96 points, or 0.4% at 7,159.84. The FTSE 250 was down 50.71 points, or 0.3%, at 18,826.46. The AIM All-Share was down 7.43 points, or 0.8%, at 942.23.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.6% at 12,111.90. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.3% at 16,903.55, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,778.25.In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.7% and 0.3% respectively. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed flat. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 1.0%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.4%."European markets had a decent day yesterday, rebounding from three-month lows, bringing some respite to recent declines; however we've opened lower this morning after a late sell off in the US, and a weak Asia session, with the tech sector leading this morning's declines," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended broadly lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average flat, the S&P 500 down 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite 1.6% lower.The steep drop by the Nasdaq index came as tech stocks were under pressure from an antitrust probe involving several big-name companies. US lawmakers on Monday announced a sweeping investigation into the dominance of major tech companies to determine whether they stifle a competitive marketplace.The investigation - a rare bipartisan effort - is the first major indication that lawmakers in Congress will seek to legislate antitrust regulations targeting technology giants such as Alphabet's Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, which have come under increasing criticism for market domination and privacy concerns."This is a big deal given that these companies are also facing challenges from European regulators and tie into recent comments by Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook who suggested that it might be in the best interests of all if Facebook were broken up," Hewson added. Trade concerns also continued to weigh on the markets after an official document from the Chinese government blamed the US for the escalating trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday criticized China's trade record, saying it had been unfair for decades and that US President Donald Trump was "committed to change this" as the trade war between the two countries rumbled on.Speaking in The Hague, Pompeo pressured the Dutch government to exclude the Chinese phone company Huawei from the extension of the 5G mobile phone network on security grounds.On the London Stock Exchange, Mexican gold miner Fresnillo was the best blue-chip performer, up 1.0%, tracking spot gold prices higher.The precious metal was quoted at USD1,328.22 an ounce, up from USD1.319.00 at the London equities close Monday. At the other end of the large cap index, oil majors were in the red, tracking spot oil prices lower, quoted at USD61.07, down from USD61.46 at the London equities close Monday. The North Sea benchmark hit a low of USD60.76 in early morning trade.Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares were down 1.3% and 1.4% respectively, while BP was down 0.9%.In its much-anticipated strategy update, Shell raised its future free cash flow guidance and said it expects to return USD125 billion to shareholders over the five-year period of 2021 to 2025.Shell said it remains on track to deliver on its 2020 commitments and expects organic free cash flow of around USD35 billion for 2025 at USD60 per barrel. By the end of next year, Shell plans to complete its previously announced USD25 billion share buyback programme, reach a gearing level of 25%, and deliver USD28 billion to USD33 billion of organic free cash flow at USD60 per barrel. The firm also expects to raise its dividend payment "when there is line of sight to the completion of the USD25 billion share buyback programme".In the FTSE 250, Royal Mail was up 2.2% after JPMorgan raised the postal operator to Neutral from Underweight. At the other end of the FTSE 250, Woodford Patient Capital Trust was the worst performer, down 13% - the fund is run by star fund manager Neil Woodford.Woodford has suspended withdrawals from his equity income fund as the fund's underperformance resulted in significant outflow of investors.In a statement on Monday, LF Woodford Equity Income Fund said: "Following an increased level of redemptions, this period of suspension is intended to protect the investors in the fund by allowing Woodford, as previously communicated to investors, time to reposition the element of the fund's portfolio invested in unquoted and less liquid stocks, in to more liquid investments."The equity fund is managed by Woodford Investment Management, which also manages UK listed Woodford Patient Capital Trust. Trading in Woodford Patient Capital Trust remains unaffected by the suspension.According to the Financial Times, the suspension in fund redemptions followed a steady stream of investor outflows and was sparked by Kent County Council seeking the return of around GBP250 million. The investor exodus has resulted in the fund shrinking to GBP3.7 billion from GBP10.2 billion in May 2017, the newspaper reported.Meanwhile, a reduction in US interest rates "may be warranted soon" due in part to escalating global trade tensions, according to St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard.Bullard said the Fed faces a US economy that is expected to grow more slowly going forward and warned the slowdown could be sharper than expected due to ongoing global trade regime uncertainty.The pound was quoted at USD1.2675 early Tuesday, higher than USD1.2622 at the London equities close Monday.Trump is expected to discuss plans for a post-Brexit liberal free-trade deal at a business forum and in talks with UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday.May, who is scheduled to co-host the business round-table with Trump, is expected to say that the US and Britain can make their "great partnership...greater still," according to advance excerpts from her speech.The White House said Trump supports Brexit "being accomplished in a way that will not affect global economic and financial stability while also securing independence to the UK".The economic calendar on Tuesday has UK construction PMI at 0930 BST, while the EU has unemployment data due out at 1000 BST.