By Christiana Sciaudone
Investing.com -- Markets opened slightly lower on Tuesday as U.S.-China tensions rose.
China Daily, the state-backed newspaper, said China would not accept the "theft" of the social media platform TikTok, and may retaliate. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is looking to buy TikTok with President Donald Trump's approval. Trump said Monday that the U.S. should get a "substantial portion" of any deal.
The S&P 500 closed Monday within 3% of its all-time high, powered over the past four months by a stimulus-led rebound and a rally in tech-related stocks including Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).
At 9:36 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 11 points, or 0.04%, the S&P 500 was down 0.18% and NASDAQ Composite was down 0.09%.
Investors are awaiting signs of progress in another major coronavirus relief package, with Congress set to resume talks on Tuesday to narrow gaping differences.
Quarterly earnings continue to be reported, with about 83% of the 322 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported quarterly results so far have beaten estimates for earnings, according to IBES Refinitiv data.
Disney reports after the close.