US open: Dow down 100 points on Germany's Greek refusal

US stocks opened lower on Thursday, after Germany rejected Greece's proposal, while oil prices retreated again.

Just before 10:00 in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.58% down, while the S&P 500 declined 0.03% and the Nasdaq rose 0.04%

On Thursday afternoon, reports emerged that Germany had rejected Greece’s conciliatory request for a six-month extension on its loan agreement, claiming the demand was “not a substantial proposal for a solution.”

“Greece is running out of time and money,” said Berenberg analyst Holger Schmieding.

“Having already come part of the way, Greece may well move further and accept the current programme as the basis for all further discussions at the Eurogroup meeting Friday.

“Changing just parts of the request Greece has now submitted may suffice for that but completing Greece’s inevitable U-turn that fast will be tough for its double-populist coalition, to put it mildly."

Markets had closed marginally lower on Wednesday, as investors came to terms with the minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve, which seemed to suggest the rate hike might come later than expected.

“The enhanced possibility of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates later in the year after a set of dovish FOMC minutes helped US stock markets pull off the lows on Wednesday,” said CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler.

“Nevertheless, losses in the energy sector dragged the major indices just into the red as oil prices slid.”

The Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index is released at 15:00 GMT and economists expect a slight rebound in the index, which fell from 24.3 in December to 6.3 in January.

Energy stocks were the worst hit, after oil prices tumbled to about $50 a barrel, in the wake of reports showing a huge increase in US crude stockpiles.

West Texas Intermediate crude lost over 5.6% to $49.39 a barrel, while Brent crude slipped 4.2% and was trading at $58.05 a barrel.

Oil groups Exxon Mobil slid 1.89%, with ConocoPhillips down 2.83% and Halliburton by 1.91%.

Retail giant Wal-Mart declined 2.93% after it gave disappointing forecasts, even though its fourth quarter rose from $4.43bn to $4.97bn.

T-Mobile US rose 5% after reporting a better-than-expected surge in revenue and swinging to a profit in the fourth quarter.

Priceline Group, the online travel company, surged 7.33 % after profit and sales beat expectations

Gold futures advanced 1.20% to $1,214.60, while the dollar rose 0.1% and 0.2% against the pound and the euro respectively and gained almost 0.4% against the yen.