US open: Dow drops 50 points as stocks relinquish Monday's gains

US stocks declined on Tuesday after two sessions of solid gains, as losses in the European and Asian markets weighed on sentiment.

Just after 09:30 in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 50 points, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq began the session nine and 18 points down, respectively.

European stocks slid after data showed Eurozone unemployment remained above expectations at 11.3% in February, after upward revisions to the prior month, while Asian stocks endured a choppy session, with the Nikkei 225 and the Shanghai Composite Index both falling 1%.

“Monday’s recovery restores some of the optimistic outlook, but the US dollar is waking from its slumber once more and this will make life harder for indices on Wall Street to follow their European cousins higher,” said Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at IG.

The dollar jumped 0.74% against the euro and gained 0.11% against the pound but fell just over 0.1% against the yen, while gold futures edged 0.09% higher to $1,185.90.

US house prices remained steady in January, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index released on Tuesday.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices grew 0.9%, while they rose 4.6% year-on-year.

There is more economic data on the way for US investors, with the US Conference Board set to report on consumer confidence for March, which is expected to be largely unchanged from the previous month, at 15:00 GMT.

Before that, the closely-monitored Chicago Purchasing Managers Index is released at 14:45 GMT.

Earlier on Tuesday, Richmond Fed head Jeffrey Lacker, said there was a “strong” case for the Fed to raise interest rates as early as June as he expects solid growth and increasing inflation.

"I expect that, unless incoming economic reports diverge substantially from projections, the case for raising rates will remain strong at the June meeting," he said.

In company news, fast food giant McDonald’s slid 0.33% after announcing it would start testing all-day breakfasts in San Diego in April.

IT group IBM fell 0.68% after unveiling lans to invest $3bn in a new “Internet of Things” business, designed to help customers gather and analyse data from sensor-equipped devices and smartphones.

Property giant CBRE Group rose 3.30% after confirming it would buy Johnson Controls' workplace solutions business in a deal worth $1.47bn.

Oil prices fell sharply in the wake of last-minute talks between Iran and six global powers over Teheran’s nuclear programme.
West Texas Intermediate fell 2.3% to $47.57 a barrel, while Brent crude shed 2.7% to $54.83 a barrel.