US open: Stocks head south despite ongoing optimism around economic reopening

Wall Street stocks traded lower early on Monday despite ongoing optimism regarding the US economy reopening in the summer.

As of 1525 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.14% at 34,708.66, while the S&P 500 was 0.17% weaker at 4,222.56 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.03% softer at 13,809.87.

The Dow Jones opened 47.73 points lower on Monday, taking a bite out of gains recorded on Friday after a key jobs report showed the US unemployment rate had dropped to 5.8% as 559,000 jobs were added to the economy in May.

In focus at the open, G7 nations reached an agreement on global tax reform over the weekend, pushing for the world's largest firms to shell out a minimum of 15% tax on earnings, lower than Joe Biden's initial suggestion of a minimum 21% tax rate.

May's consumer price index, slated for release on Thursday, will also be on investors' minds, market participants looking ahead to the key inflation data after the April CPI rose 4.2% year-on-year - its fastest increase since 2008.

In the corporate space, tech stocks were in the red at the open, with the likes of Zoom and Tesla both trading lower and weighing on the Nasdaq Composite, while Visa stock traded higher on the back of an upgrade from analysts at Piper Sandler.

Speculative stocks like GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry will also be in focus again this week after a volatile few sessions for the so-called "meme stocks".

On the macro front, consumer credit change numbers for April will be released at 1900 BST.