US open: Stocks head south as Trump attacks OPEC
Wall Street opened on a somewhat sombre note on Friday, with all major indices down as corporate earnings fell short of repairing the damage done by yet another Donald Trump tweet.
At 1545 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were down 0.39% and 0.41%, respectively, while the Nasdaq had lost 0.68%.
After hitting more than three-year highs earlier in the week, crude futures turned lower on Friday after Donald Trump suggested that OPEC was keeping oil prices artificially high - something he said: "will not be accepted".
Speaking shortly after the bell, SpreadEx's Connor Campbell said, "The Dow Jones wilted in the face of the dollar's comeback after the bell. The greenback pared its gains against sterling with a half a percent rise against the euro, a bounce that helped inform the Dow’s own 70 point decline."
"That drop takes the Dow under 24600 for the first time since Monday, with its early in the week momentum petering out as the weekend approached," he noted.
On the corporate front, General Electric was up 4.40% after it topped estimates with its quarterly earnings.
Honeywell picked up 0.94% in early trade and Schlumberger lost 1.44%, despite seeing profits surge 88% across the first quarter.
Elsewhere, Pivotal Software shares spiked in its first moments of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, opening at $16.75 per share, and trading up as high as 10% before losing early gains.
Semiconductor company Qualcomm shares tanked after saying it will lay off 4% of its workforce as it looks to cut costs by around $1bn.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo gained 2.25% following reports that US regulators are set to slap a $1bn fine on the bank for forcing customers into car insurance and charging mortgage borrowers unfair fees.
There are no major US data releases due, but Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will give a speech on current economic conditions and monetary policy to the Graaskamp Center Spring Board Conference later in the day.