US open: Dow and S&P 500 slide as worries over Greek bonds weigh on sentiment

US stocks fluctuated early on Wednesday, as the uncertainty surrounding the future of Greek bonds weighed on sentiment.

Just before 10:00 in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.33% down, while the S&P slipped 0.12% and the Nasdaq rose 0.12%.

On Tuesday, speculations that Greece could get a six-month extension to its bailout program were dismissed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

Greece’s current bail-out plan expires on 28 February and some analysts fear the country could run out of money before then.

“Commentators generally seem to believe that the Greek stance in the talks is unworkable, so that the risk of outright disaster is still growing, but markets are priced for some kind of stopgap-funding deal for Greece, which allows the ECB to continue financing Greek banks and lets talks continue,” said Kit Juckes, a macro strategist at Société Générale.

Meanwhile, Moody’s Investors Service said the global economy will not benefit from lower oil prices over the next two years, due to headwinds attributable to sluggish growth in the Eurozone, China, Japan and Russia.

However, the rating agency added that the US economy will benefit from lower crude prices.

Oil prices continued to fall, with Brent crude losing 2.2% to $55.2 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate shed 1.2% to $49.40 a barrel.

AOL plunged 12.27% after its quarterly revenue fell short of expectations, while Pier 1 Imports plummeted 29.61%, after cutting its outlook for earnings-per-share late on Tuesday evening.

Going the other way, PepsiCo advanced 1.88% after the soft drinks giant beat earnings expectations and announced share repurchases and dividend increases, while First Solar edged 1.85% higher after the company announced late on Tuesday that Apple had committed $848m in a power-purchase agreement.

Rite Aid rallied 9.76% after strong quarterly results. The pharmacy group confirmed it has agreed to buy TPG’s EnvisionRx in a deal valued at about $2bn.

Gold futures rose 0.17% to $1,234.30, while the dollar fell less than 0.1% against the pound but rose 0.6% against the yen and 0.1% against the euro.