Investing.com – Wall Street opened lower on Wednesday, as fresh geopolitical concerns rose and investors waited for meeting minutes from the Fed.
The S&P 500 was down nine points or 0.35% to 2,714.88 as of 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased over 74 points or 0.30% to 24,759.55 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell 23 points or 0.32% to 7,354.64.
Trade concerns have resurfaced among investors after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not pleased with how the U.S.-China trade talks were going. He also said there were doubts about whether or not a U.S.-North Korea summit would take place on June 12. The U.S. is concerned that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will not give up his nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile investors are looking ahead to the latest meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve. The minutes are set to be released at 2:00 PM ET (18:30 GMT). Investors will be looking closely for any sign of tightening monetary policy.
Technology stocks were lower after the morning bell, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) down 0.57%, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) dipping 0.65% and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) falling 0.37%. Retail firm Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) slumped 4.00% after a disappointing earnings results, while Walmart (NYSE:WMT) decreased 1.06%.
Elsewhere retail home improvement company Lowe’s Companies Inc (NYSE:LOW) surged 7.83% as it maintained its annual financial targets, despite a lower than expected quarter. Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) was up 14.61% after its earnings results came in higher than expected, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 1.21% after analyst firm Baird reiterate its outperform rating for the luxury car maker.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 215 points or 1.64% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 78 points or 1.38% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 68 points or 0.87%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 56 points or 1.57% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 130 points or 1.29%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.22% to $1,289.20 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.39% to $71.92 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.38% to 93.87.