US open: Major indices fall on weak Chinese data, tapering fears

Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Monday after data out of China showed the Asian nation's economy was slowing down at a faster-than-expected rate.

As of 1515 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.33% at 35,399.68, while the S&P 500 was 0.47% weaker at 4,447.22 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.11% softer at 14,658.55.

The Dow Jones opened 115.70 points lower on Monday, knocking the blue-chip index off its record high.

In focus on Monday, China's retail sales grew 8.5% year-on-year in July, below the 11.5% expected by economists, with online sales gaining just 4.4% last month, while Chinese industrial production increased 6.4%, also shy of estimates of 7.8%, with China's National Bureau of Statistics noting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and domestic flooding meant the country's economic recovery was "still unstable and uneven".

Stocks also lost ground on the back of talks that the Federal Reserve will announce a tapering of its bond purchases in September and kick off the reduction in buying shortly thereafter after.

Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari stated he would "feel comfortable" with tapering asset purchases if he was to witness "a few more jobs reports like the one we just got". He also highlighted that the central bank must "pay attention" to the inflation side of its dual mandate".

An ongoing surge in the number of cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant weighed on reopening plats like Norwegian Cruise Line, while the Taliban's claiming of Kabul sent oil prices southbound on the back of fears of political instability in the region.

On the macro front, the Empire State manufacturing index declined more than expected in August after its record-setting expansion a month earlier, with the index on current business conditions falling roughly 25 points to 18.3 - well and truly short of a reading of 29.0 forecast by analysts.

Still to come, foreign bond investment numbers and overall net capital outflow figures for June will be published at 2100 BST.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Monday.