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U.S. stocks open mixed on dollar moves

Xinhua, March 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened mixed on Wednesday as investors continued to weigh the impact of the dollar on the coming earning season.

Traders kept a close eye on the U.S. dollar, which had witnessed big swings recently. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.49 percent at 96.712 early Wednesday.

The focus is on dollar's moves as the strengthening dollar threatened to cut into U.S. multinational corporate earnings.

On economic front, new orders for manufactured durable goods in February decreased 3.2 billion dollars or 1.4 percent to 231.3 billion dollars, missing analysts' expectations, according to the Commerce Department Wednesday. The report marked the sixth straight month of declines.

In corporate news, H.J. Heinz, owned by P-E firm 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway, has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Kraft to create The Kraft Heinz Company, forming the third largest food and beverage company in North America.

Heinz shareholders will own a 51 percent stake in the combined company, while Kraft shareholders will hold a 49 percent stake and receive a special cash dividend of 16.50 per share. Shares of Kraft jumped 32.21 percent in the early trading.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 8.54 points, or 0.05 percent, to 18,002.60. The S&P 500 gained 1.50 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,093.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 7.12 points, or 0.14 percent, to 4,987.61.

U.S. stocks pared early gains to end lower Tuesday, as speculations about an earlier rate hike was growing following the release of better-than-expected economic data. Endi