US open: Stocks trade lower following the Street's worst week since February

Wall Street stocks were in the red shortly after the open on Monday following the worst week for major US indices since February.

As of 1525 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.26% at 34,293.96, while the S&P 500 was 0.27% weaker at 4,162.41 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.46% softer at 13,367.64.

The Dow opened 88.17 points lower on Friday, cutting into gains recorded in the final session of an otherwise lacklustre week for stocks.

In focus early on Monday, AT&T and Discovery shares were both trading higher on the back of news of a potential merger of the former's WarnerMedia unit, which includes HBO, with the latter, with the new company set to trade as its own public entity.

Major tech stocks, which took a beating last week, were down again early on, with Apple, Facebook, Netflix and Alphabet all trading lower,

On the macro front, manufacturing sector activity in the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York slipped a bit last month, with the so-called 'Empire State' index dipping from a reading of 26.3 for April to 24.3 in May. Economists had pencilled-in a reading of 23.9.

Elsewhere, the National Association of Housebuilders' housing market index came in at a print of 83 in May, unchanged from April's reading, supported by low inventories and strong demand despite rising prices and limited availability of certain building materials.

Still to come, foreign bond investment figures for March will be published at 2100 BST.