US Stocks Open Lower on Disappointing Earnings and Drop in Crude Oil Prices
US Stocks Open Lower on Disappointing Earnings and Drop in Crude Oil Prices
Major US equity indices opened lower on Wednesday as disappointing
earnings and a minor weakness in crude oil prices weighed on investor
sentiment.
In early trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost
over 80 point to 17,845 and the S&P 500 was down 8 points at 2,077.
Meanwhile, tech heavy Nasdaq Composite index is trading at 4,795, with a
cut of around 15 point. Wednesday's drop is occurring a day after the
S&P 500 and the Dow logged their biggest percentage gains in over
two-months.
In absence of any major economic releases, investors
will closely watch the weekly report on US crude oil inventories data,
which has the potential trigger volatile moves in crude oil prices.
Buoyant oil prices would contribute to improve investor sentiment and
would increase their appetite towards riskier assets like stocks.
Investors, however, remained skeptic over the sustainability of the
recent rally witnessed across global markets since February.
Mixed global markets
European
stock indices were trading lower for the first time in three sessions.
The broader European index, the Stoxx Europe 600 was down around 0.7% to
334. Meanwhile, Asian markets witnessed a choppy session with the
Nikkei Stock Average ended flat with a slight positive bias, up 0.1%.
However, late weakness in Hong-Kong markets dragged the HangSang index
down by 0.9%. The Chinese, Shanghal Composite index, swung between
positive and negative territory to eventually finish up by 0.2%.
