US open: Stocks slip at the start of trading

Wall Street was trading on a mixed note at the start of the week, with investors looking out to next Friday´s monthly US jobs report and watching to see whether the S&P 500 managed to clamber atop a key short-term level of technical resistance.

As 1513 GMT, the S&P 500 was 0.21% lower to 1,944, the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 0.19% to 16,610 and the Nasdaq Composite by 0.01% to 4,591.

Meeting over the weekend, G-20 finance minister failed to live up to expectations of a pledge for a coordinated boost from fiscal policy, although some observers said the assembled leaders made all the right noises.

That saw Chinese stocks close sharply lower on Monday, although after the close of trading the People's Bank of China announced a 50 basis point reduction to the reserve requirement ratio for the country´s lenders, potentially freeing up funds that could then be invested in the economy.

However, the PBoC also guided the yuan lower for fifth straight session on Monday, setting a 0.17% weaker fix for the country´s currency rekindling worries that it might attempt to manipulate the value of its currency in order to boost the economy.

"Today’s cut to the required reserve ratio (RRR) is therefore both confirmation that policymakers retain a bias towards easing and also a signal that they are less concerned about [capital] outflows getting out of control,” Capital Economics´s chief Asia economist Mark Williams said in a research note sent to clients.

Back in the US, MNI´s February Chicago manufacturing sector purchasing managers´ index declined 8.0 points to 47.6 (consensus: 52.8).

The National Association of Realtors´ pending home sales index for January declined by 2.5% month-on-month (consensus: 0.6%).

Data scheduled for release on 4 March would show the US economy added 160,000 jobs in February (consensus: 195,000), analysts at Danske Bank said in a research note sent to clients.

"We believe that the continued progress in the labour market will keep wage inflation trending higher but if February data shows stagnating or even slowing wage growth, it will further reduce the chance that the Fed will proceed with the hiking cycle anytime soon," the broker said.

Traders were also watching to see if the S&P 500 managed to break past technical resistance at 1,950 points, paving the way for further gains.

Oil prices were moving higher. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.9% to $33.40 per barrel and Brent increased 2.2% to $35.92 per barrel.

OPEC´s output of crude oil declined by 270,000 barrels per day in February to reach 32.265m barrels per day, according to a report citing Bloomberg and estimates from JBC Energy.

On the company front, shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International fell after the drugmaker said it would reschedule its planned call to discuss fourth quarter results, which had been pencilled in for Monday. The group also announced on Sunday evening that chief executive Michael Pearson had returned from medical leave.

Lumber Liquidators Holdings slumped after the flooring retailer reported a worse-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter.

NRG Energy and Consol Energy announced they would cut their dividends amid a continued slump in commodity prices.

The dollar strengthened against the pound and the euro by 0.20% and 0.51% respectively, but weakened 1.05% versus the yen as Fed funds futures began to price-in the possibility one Fed hike at the end of 2016.