Stocks Open Lower After Holiday
Stocks Open Lower After Holiday
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are moving slightly lower in early trading Friday as traders return from the Thanksgiving holiday. Energy stocks fell more than the rest of the market as the price of oil turned lower. Disney lost ground after reporting declining subscriber numbers for ESPN.
THE EARLY SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slid 49 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,764 as of 10:02 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost three points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,085. The Nasdaq composite gave up two points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 5,114.
U.S. markets were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. They will close at 1 p.m. on Friday.
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ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 90 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $42.14 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, gave up 23 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $45.23 a barrel in London.
Energy stocks followed the price of oil lower in early trading. Consol Energy lost 47 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $7.53 and Southwestern Energy gave up 29 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $9.13.
DISNEY DOWN: Late Wednesday, Disney disclosed that U.S. subscribers to its ESPN sports channel fell for the second year in a row. Disney said ESPN had 92 million subscribers as of Oct. 3, matching its lowest total since 2006. ESPN's subscriber totals had hovered around 100 million for years. Disney fell $3.84, or 3.2 percent, to $114.83.
BLACK FRIDAY: Today is Black Friday, a much-hyped shopping day when millions of Americans will hit the stores in search of bargains. Trading in retail stocks was quiet early in the day. Target fell 12 cents to $73.04 and Wal-Mart Stores dipped 27 cents to $59.97. Amazon.com stock rose 49 cents to $675.83.
EUROPE STOCKS: France's CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent and Germany's DAX was unchanged. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.2 percent.
CHINA PROBE: China's Shanghai Composite index had its worst day in three months on reports that two major Chinese brokerages are under investigation for possible violation of securities market rules. A string of Chinese securities executives have been detained or questioned following a plunge in share prices that began in early June.
The Shanghai Composite sank 5.5 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.9 percent.
BONDS AND CURRENCIES: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.22 percent from 2.24 percent late Wednesday. The euro fell to $1.0583 from $1.0617 and dollar rose to 122.75 yen from 122.72 yen.
(KA)