US open: Stocks slide on Greece concerns

US stocks slid early on Friday, as investors grew increasingly worried by the latest developments in the Greek financial crisis.

Just after 15:00 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 16 points, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lost four and nine points respectively.

"The US markets appeared to swallow a big dose of reality after the open; the highs the futures had seen switched to mild losses as the day went on, with little on the on the horizon to inspire any immediate change," said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.

No deal in sight for Greece

European stocks pushed slightly higher, although worries about Greece were never far from investors' minds.

As widely expected, Greece and its creditors failed to reach an agreement at Thursday’s Eurogroup meeting, so an emergency summit of European Union heads of government has now been scheduled for Monday.

The European Central Bank said at the meeting that it was unclear whether Greek banks would be open on Monday, amid news that Greek savers have pulled around €2bn out of banks over the past few days. Meanwhile, the ECB said it was increasing its funding for Greek banks through its ELA facility.

“Greek mattresses are growing considerably higher as a slow-motion run on the banks takes place, which has seen €2bn withdrawn in the past three days,” said Josh Mahony, market analyst at IG.

“While the ECB can provide further ELA to temporarily raise reserves, such outflows will only ever grow.”

The economic calendar is extremely quiet, with Cleveland Fed’s president Loretta Mester speaking at the Fed’s policy summit in Pittsburgh the only event of note.

Dollar struggles for direction

Elsewhere, the dollar reversed earlier gains, losing 0.25% against the yen, although the greenback was flat against the pound and gained 0.23% while gold futures edged 0.07% higher to $1,202.90.

Asian stocks closed mixed, with the Shanghai Composite Index plunging 6.4%, registering its worst week in over seven years, while oil prices tumbled.

West Texas Intermediate lost 1.24% to $59.71 a barrel, while Brent dropped 1.66% to $63.21 a barrel.

In company news, firearms producer Smith & Wesson dropped 4.89% after saying late on Thursday that its quarterly forecast fell short of expectations, although its fourth-quarter earnings beat Wall Street’s estimates.

Housebuilder KB Home surged 8.76% after its second-quarter profit and sales topped estimates