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U.S. stocks open lower ahead of new earnings season

Xinhua, January 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened lower Monday after last week' s rocky trading, as a new corporate earnings season is unfolding.

Aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. will release results for the fourth quarter of last year after Monday' s closing bell, which will unofficially kick off the earnings season.

Some major U.S. banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co., will also release their quarterly results this week.

According to Thomson Reuters, fourth-quarter earnings are expected to grow 4.0 percent year-over-year, and 22 S&P 500 companies are due to report quarterly results this week.

Falling oil prices continued to pressure U.S. stocks, with Brent crude for February delivery touching a session low of 47.62 dollars per barrel early Monday and U.S. crude for February hitting as low as 46.11 dollars a barrel.

Goldman Sachs analysts on Monday substantially slashed their near-term oil price forecast, with the three-month price forecast for Brent cutting to 42 dollars a barrel from 80 dollars.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38.09 points, or 0.21 percent, to 17,699.28. The S&P 500 lost 5.81 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,039.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 5.13 points, or 0.11 percent, to 4,698.93.

On Friday, the three benchmarks retreated following two sessions' sharp gains to cap a volatile trading week lower, as investors were assessing the December nonfarm payroll report that had the U.S. jobless rate fall to 5.6 percent, the lowest since June 2008. Endi