US open: Dow Jones lower following five-week winning streak

dl wall street wall st new york city new york stock exchange nyse dow jones nasdaq street sign nyc united states usa america pb — Sharecast / Alessandro D Andrea via Pixabay

Wall Street stocks were firmly in the red early on Monday after the blue-chip Dow Jones turned in its fifth-straight winning week.

As of 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.34% at 36,123.90, while the S&P 500 declined 0.92% to 4,552.46 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.54% weaker at 14,084.66.

The Dow opened 121.60 points lower on Monday, taking a sizeable bite out of gains recorded in the previous session.

Stocks were lower in early trade as rising treasury yields seemed to indicate concerns that rate cut expectations may have gone too far, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note up roughly six basis points at 4.264% and its two-year counterpart almost ten basis points higher at 4.642%.

On the macro front, factory orders sank 3.6% month-on-month in October, according to the Census Bureau, following a downwardly revised 2.3% rise in September and the biggest decrease since April 2020 as the industrial sector continues to battle with high-interest rates and inflation. Market forecasts were for a fall of 2.8%. Excluding transportation, factory orders were down 1.2%, and excluding defence, orders sank 4.2%.

Investors were looking ahead to November's all-important jobs report on Friday, with traders looking for further hints that the Federal Reserve was done with its interest rate hiking programme, especially after comments from chairman Jerome Powell that it may well be "premature" to anticipate any easing in monetary policy.

In the corporate space, Alaska Airlines shares flew south at the open on the back of news that it had inked a deal to acquire rival Hawaiian Airlines as part of a $1.9bn deal as part of an effort for both carriers to expand along the West Coast.

Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, Coinbase, and Microstrategy all opened higher after Bitcoin passed the $41,000 mark to notch a 19-month high, while big-name tech stocks, such as Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Alphabet, all traded lower amid a pullback in the sector.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

3M Co. (MMM) $102.18 2.33%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $324.95 1.67%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $162.54 1.24%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $104.43 0.94%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $183.53 0.85%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $114.31 0.73%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $159.23 0.54%
American Express Co. (AXP) $174.46 0.41%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $58.78 0.24%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $157.15 0.20%