Investing.com - Wall Street opened lower on Wednesday as the U.S. and Canada restarted trade talks and social media companies were in focus at a Senate committee hearing.
The S&P 500 lost 5 points, or 0.20%, to 2,890.94 as of 9:39 AM ET (13:39 GMT), while the Dow decreased 22 points, or 0.09%, to 25,929.56 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 27 points, or 0.33%, to 8,064.24.
Trade talks between the U.S. and Canada are expected to continue on Wednesday, after ending tense negotiations on Friday over a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement. Meanwhile, fresh U.S. tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods could go into effect as soon as the public comment period ends on Thursday.
Social media stocks fell as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is expected to appear alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at a Senate committee hearing on social media influence in elections this morning. The two are expected to defend their companies efforts to fight election interference and misinformation. Facebook dipped 0.58%, while Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) decreased 1.41%. Meanwhile, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was down 2.01% after Mercedes-Benz unveiled a rival electric car.
Elsewhere, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) rose 0.57%, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched up 0.18% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) surged 3.81%.
In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 97 points, or 0.80%, while in France the CAC 40 decreased 55 points, or 1.04%, and in London the FTSE 100 was down 72 points to 0.97%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 dipped 22 points to 0.67%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 21 points, or 0.23%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.33% to $1,203.10 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.53% to $69.50 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, dipped 0.34% to 95.05.