US open: Dow and S&P open in the red, as markets soak in economic data

US stocks opened Tuesday's session marginally lower taking in a relatively weaker dollar alongside a plethora of economic data releases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 12 points or 0.08% at 18,102.50 while the S&P 500 opened a point or 0.08% down at 2,102.44. The Nasdaq opened marginally in the green before trading down 0.05% at 5,008.95 as the equities world soaked in macroeconomic data.

Markets opened with the news that US Consumer Price Index (CPI) had risen by 0.2% in February, in line with market expectations and against 0.7% the previous month. Core CPI, outstripping food and energy costs, came in at 0.2% in February repeating a similar gain in January.

In the 12 months to February, the core CPI rose 1.7%; the largest increase since November. Paul Ashworth, Chief US Economist at Capital Economics, expects the stronger dollar to continue to put downward pressure on imported goods prices.

“But going in the other direction, rising labour costs will put upward pressure on core services prices. As the dampening effect from the stronger dollar fades in the second half of this year, we would expect to see core inflation gradually strengthen,” he added.

Switching tack to specific companies, on the New York Stock Exchange, Coca Cola and Merck were the early risers with Walt Disney and American Express going the other way. Elsewhere, crude oil fell in early Asian trading on the back of disappointing manufacturing data from China and Japan, before staging a recovery.

At 13:40 GMT, ahead of the publication of American Petroleum Institute (API) weekly oil inventory data later on Tuesday, WTI front month futures contract was up 23 cents or 0.48% at $47.68 per barrel while Brent was down 0.80% or 45 cents at $55.57.