U.S. stocks open lower after flat wholesale prices
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E-mail Xinhua, September 16, 2014
U.S. stocks opened lower Tuesday after U.S. producer prices turned out flat in August, as investors were focusing on the Federal Reserve' s policy meeting later in the day.
The Producer Price Index for final demand was unchanged in August thanks to falling energy and food costs, said the U.S. Labor Department. The muted wholesale prices in August followed a 0.1-percent rise in July.
"Given the recent easing of inflationary concerns in the economy, the Fed has more time to allow monetary policy to work its way through the economy before feeling the need to raise rates," said Jay Morelock, economist at FTN Financial, in a note Tuesday.
Moreover, investors remained cautious as the Fed is holding a two-day policy meeting starting on Tuesday. The meeting has drawn great market attention, as Fed officials are expected to shed more light on the timing of the first interest rate hike and may revise the language of "considerable time" from the end of the Fed' s asset purchasing program to the first rate increase.
In corporate news, China' s e-commerce giant Alibaba late Monday raised its initial public offering (IPO) price range to 66 U.S. dollars to 68 dollars per American depositary share (ADS), up from the previous range of 60 dollars to 66 dollars, as the company received overwhelming demand from investors.
But the company and the selling stockholders will still offer a total of 320.1 million ADSs, taking the size of the IPO to about 21.4 billion dollars at the midpoint of the new range, expected to be the largest in U.S. IPO history.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 24.34 points, or 0.14 percent, to 17,006.80. The S&P 500 dipped 2.25 points, or 0.11 percent, to 1,981.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 10.85 points, or 0.24 percent, to 4,508.05.
On the previous trading day, U.S. stocks ended mixed, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq slammed by falling tech shares, as some investors repositioned by selling momentum stocks to make room for Alibaba. Endi
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