Investing.com - Wall Street opened lower Wednesday as the U.S. government shutdown continued and investors remained wary of a global economic slowdown.
The S&P 500 fell 36 points, or 1.5%, as of 9:30 AM ET (14:30 GMT), while the Dow decreased 267 points, or 1.15%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 114 points, or 1.7%.
The market had its worst years in a decade in 2018. The decline was set to continue after factory data from China showed a contraction for the first time in 19 months.
"Investors are clearly concerned about the growth in 2019 and the lack of confidence is keeping them on the sidelines or they are feeling safer by parking their capital in risk-off assets," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK.
The U.S. government shutdown also drew on for the 12th day. Congress is expected to reconvene on Wednesday, but there are no clear signs that the shutdown will end anytime soon. A tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump late on Tuesday suggested he could be open to deal.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell more than 10% after the company posted fourth-quarter production deliveries that were lower than expected.
Chipmakers were also down, with Micron (NASDAQ:MU) dipping 0.9% amid global slowdown concerns.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 2% after Citi decreased its iPhone production estimates.
Meanwhile, banking stocks were down, with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) decreasing 0.4%, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) down 0.8% and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) losing 0.7%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.39% to $1,286.30 a troy ounce and crude oil decreased 1.8% to $44.58 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.6% to 96.33.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.