Monday, 27 July 2015 21:47
NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks began a busy week of earnings and economic reports sharply lower in early trade Monday following a plunge in Chinese equity markets.
About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,414.97, down 153.56 points (0.87 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 13.79 (0.66 percent) to 2,065.86, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 41.11 (0.81 percent) to 5,047.52.
US and European equity markets retreated after the Shanghai exchange plummeted 8.48 percent on fears the Chinese government will pull back on support measures that have stabilized the market the last three weeks.
The US calendar includes a Federal Reserve policy meeting and earnings reports from Facebook, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble.
Allergan rose 5.4 percent after reaching a deal to sell its generic drug business to Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva for $ 40.5 billion. Teva jumped 10.0 percent.
Teva said it was abandoning an effort to buy rival Mylan, which sank 13.8 percent. But Perrigo, which has opposed efforts to be acquired by Mylan, rose 4.1 percent.
Software and industrial equipment maker company Roper Technologies fell 4.8 percent as it trimmed its full-year profit forecast from $ 6.75-$ 6.95 per share to $ 6.61-$ 6.75, citing weak conditions in the upstream oil and gas business.
Banking shares fell, including Dow member JPMorgan Chase (-1.7 percent), Bank of America (-1.8 percent) and Citigroup (-2.0 percent).
US-listed Chinese companies were weak, with e-commerce giant Alibaba losing 3.2 percent and online retailer JD.com losing 5.0 percent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.22 percent from 2.26 percent Friday, while the 30-year declined to 2.92 percent from 2.96 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
