US open: Stocks mixed after EU and US strike deal to ween off Russian energy

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 mixed early on Friday after the European Union struck a deal with the US in an effort to lower its Russian energy usage.

As of 1520 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.13% at 34,754.64, while the S&P 500 was 0.04% softer at 4,518.46 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.78% weaker at 14,080.67.

The Dow opened 46.70 points higher on Friday, building upon solid gains recorded in the previous session.

In focus early on Friday was news that the US and EU had reached a deal to increase exports of liquefied natural gas to the block and cut its dependence on Russian energy.

President Joe Biden and his European Commission counterpart Ursula von der Leyen said the deal would see LNG shipments to Europe rise by 15.0bn cubic metres in 2022.

"This will replace the LNG supply we currently receive from Russia, and looking ahead, the United States and Europe will ensure stable demand and supply for an additional at least 50 billion cubic metres of US LNG until 2030," von der Leyen said, noting that amount would replace one-third of Russian gas imports. "We are right on track now to diversify away from Russian gas," she said.

Also in focus, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note surged to a fresh multi-year high of 2.475% in early trading.

On the macro front, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment was revised slightly lower to 59.4 in March, down from a preliminary of 59.7 for the lowest reading since August 2011. The subindexes for both current conditions and expectations were both revised down to 67.2 from 67.8 and 54.3 from 54.4, respectively.

Elsewhere, US existing homes sales plunged 5.4% year-on-year in February, according to the National Association of Realtors, marking a nine-month drop in transactions

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Friday.

Dow Jones - Risers

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $153.45 1.57%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $142.72 1.44%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $340.76 1.35%
3M Co. (MMM) $150.81 1.23%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $130.73 1.15%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $177.16 1.10%
American Express Co. (AXP) $190.90 1.06%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $81.25 1.05%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $55.03 0.97%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $47.46 0.93%