NEW YORK, April 21 — Wall Street stocks opened sharply lower today as the oil market remained under pressure and more large companies withdrew their earnings forecasts due to the uncertain economic outlook.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.0 per cent at 23,185.54.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.8 per cent to 2,773.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.7 per cent to 8,416.10.
Analysts said crashing oil prices had undermined investor sentiment following a three-week period in which stocks rallied.
Yesterday, US oil futures finished in negative territory for the first time due to a glut of supply that has strained storage capacity in the US.
“The negative print for May, and the further collapse in prices for June delivery (and beyond), is a pathway to weaker labour conditions in the energy sector for months to come (maybe years), as well as a warning sign for increased credit default risk in the sector,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.
Meanwhile, Dow members IBM and Coca-Cola became the latest large companies to pull their earnings projections for 2020.
IBM fell 5.4 per cent after saying it would update the market “based on the clarity of the macroeconomic recovery at the end of the second quarter.”
Coca-Cola shed 1.3 per cent as it warned that second-quarter sales would be pressured by the drop in “away-from-home” channels with the suspension of major sporting events and the closing of restaurants, movie theatre and other public venues. — AFP