US open: Stocks head south amid heightened US-China tensions

dl exchange place wall st street pl new york city nyc ny nyse stock exchange dow jones sp nasdaq finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america — Exchange PlaceSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Tuesday amid heightened tensions between the US and China ahead of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's expected visit to Taiwan.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.05% at 32,452.90, while the S&P 500 was 0.80% weaker at 4,085.52 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.70% softer at 12,282.25.

The Dow opened 345.50 points lower on Tuesday, extending losses caused in the previous session.

Tuesday's primary focus was news that Pelosi will apparently visit Taiwan, spending the night in the country, according to Reuters. Chinese officials have since threatened to take action if she goes ahead with the visit, which would be the first such visit by a House Speaker since Newt Gingrich touched down in 1997.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warned the United States that China was "standing by" and the Chinese People's Liberation Army will "never sit idly by" and China would take "resolute responses and strong countermeasures" to defend its sovereignty and "territorial integrity".

In the corporate space, brewer Molson Coors reported a drop in quarterly profits despite posting a fifth consecutive period of net sales growth.

Still to come, Electronic Arts, Advanced Micro Devices, Airbnb, Gilead Sciences, and PayPal will publish their latest set of quarterly results after the close.

On the macro front, US job openings fell by 605,000 month-on-month to 10.7m in June, the lowest reading in nine months and below market expectations of 11.0m, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, driven by large decreases in retail trade, wholesale trade, and state and local government education. Quits remained unchanged at 2.8%.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $89.09 0.63%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $247.05 0.58%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $157.12 0.54%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $174.64 0.42%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $536.05 0.13%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $0.00 0.00%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $45.28 -0.01%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $132.30 -0.18%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $142.59 -0.22%