Wall Street stocks open little changed

US stocks have fallen with petroleum-linked equities retreating on a big drop in oil prices as Wall Street girds for a busy week of economic reports.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 5.80 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,098.04.

Dow members ExxonMobil and Chevron lost 1.5 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, while Marathon Oil lost 2.1 percent as US crude prices plummeted 4.1 percent to $45.17 a barrel.

Michael Kors was one other huge loser, dropping $three.28, or 7.eight %, to $38.71 amid concern that demand for the posh style retailer’s purses is dropping off. Analysts at funding financial institution Canaccord reduce their worth goal on the inventory forward of the corporate’s newest earnings report due out Thursday.

Energy and commodity stocks also rallied after a slump last week with Freeeport McMoran leading raw material producers after copper prices rallied.

Tokyo eased 0.14 per cent or 27.75 points to close at 20,520.36, while Seoul gained 0.97 per cent or 19.50 points to close at 2,027.99.

Apple fell 3.2 per cent, leaving it down more than 12 per cent since its July 21 earnings release.

The euro eased to $US1.0967 from $US1.0984 late in New York on Friday.

The Dow is down 272.38 points, or 1.5 percent.

A private survey of Chinese manufacturing activity showed a decline to a two-year low in July, suggesting the world’s second largest economy faces challenges in the third quarter.

Across the Atlantic, European traders were not deterred by a heavy sell-off of Greek stocks as they resumed trading after a five-week suspension.

HONG KONG – Asian stocks closed mixed as China announced new rules restricting short selling after a recent market rout and Australia held interest rates at rock-bottom levels.

“China slowed the big selloff it saw yesterday, and that’s lifting the U.S. market”, Terry Morris, a senior equity manager who helps oversee about $2.8 billion at Wyomissing, Pennsylvania-based National Penn Investors Trust Co, told Bloomberg. The Institute of Buying Managers’ manufacturing index slipped to 52.7 from 53.5 in June. Though the tick down was slight, it surprised economists who expected the number to remain unchanged.