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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened mostly lower on Monday amid concerns over slower growth in China and faster viral spread in the U.S.
Data released overnight showed the Chinese economy slowed markedly in July, against a backdrop of characteristically aggressive efforts to stamp out local outbreaks of Covid-19 in China. The measures are yet to succeed in full, and one of the terminals at Nangbo-Zhonshuan, the world’s third-largest container port, remains shut on Monday after being closed last week.
The U.S., meanwhile, registered its worst week for new cases of Covid-19 since February last week, with the average daily case load rising to over 124,000. The latest wave of cases helped trigger a sharp drop in U.S. consumer confidence, according to data released Friday, casting doubt on the achievability of herd immunity. Fears of a slowing economy pushed the 10-year Treasury bond yield down to 1.25% despite a Wall Street Journal report suggesting that the Federal Reserve is preparing a more rapid end to its asset purchases than many have expected. The WSJ suggested that the Fed would look to start tapering bond purchases in September and finish by June next year.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 220 points, or 0.6%, at 35,296 points, having closed last week at a record high. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were both down 0.4%.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock grabbed headlines for the wrong reasons in early trading, falling 2.0% after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had started an investigation into the company’s Autopilot software and its role in nearly 20 crashes since 2018, many of them involving emergency vehicles.
