US open: Stocks head south as investors await more earnings

By Sharecast News

Sharecast News | 06 Feb, 2023

Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Monday as traders prepped for another week jam-packed with earnings and comments from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.

As of 1450 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial was down 0.46% at 33,769.21, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.62% to 4,110.68 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.59% softer at 11,936.61.

The Dow opened 156.80 points weaker on Monday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as traders digested key labour data that revealed hiring in the US shot higher at the start of 2023.

Earnings from the likes of Disney, Chipotle, Dupont and PepsiCo will all be on deck this week, the halfway point of an already somewhat disappointing Q4 earnings season, while investors will also be looking ahead to a speech by Powell on Tuesday after the central banker's comments on disinflation saw market participants push shares higher last week and ignore yet another rate hike from the Fed.

Also in focus, Beijing's foreign ministry confirmed that a balloon flying over Latin America was Chinese, after a similar device was shot down by the US over the weekend. The detection of the balloon over the US led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned visit to China on Sunday. China later expressed anger over the downing of the balloon, which it claimed was an unmanned weather surveillance aircraft that had veered off course.

In terms of earnings, Energizer revealed quarterly earnings and sales had declined amid lower volumes, while Tyson Foods posted quarterly numbers that fell well and truly short of expectations.

Still to come, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and Pinterest will all report earnings after the close.

No major data points were scheduled for release on Monday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

American Express Co. (AXP) $178.86 3.31%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $154.50 2.44%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $141.09 1.55%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $247.76 1.17%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $182.76 0.56%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $30.32 0.43%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $136.94 0.40%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $264.23 0.39%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $142.61 0.31%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $169.45 0.26%