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U.S. stocks open lower on downbeat data

Xinhua, October 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened lower Tuesday as the country' s durable goods orders came out negative.

U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in September decreased 2.9 billion U.S. dollars or 1.2 percent to 231.1 billion dollars, the Department of Commerce announced Tuesday. This decrease, down two consecutive months, followed a 3.0 percent August decrease.

"September durable orders fell 1.2 percent, a little less than the expected minus 1.5 percent, but Aug was revised from minus 2.0 percent to minus 3.0 percent. Q4 business investment will be really bad if the slide in orders continues," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

In corporate news, shares of Alibaba soared over 7 percent in early trading Tuesday after the company delivered better-than-expected quarterly results.

Before the opening bell, the Chinese e-commerce giant reported a revenue of 3.5 billion dollars for the quarter ended September 30, an increase of 32 percent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, investors keep cautious as the Federal Reserve' s two-day policy meeting begins Tuesday. Some analysts expect that the Fed will start its first interest rate hike in almost nine years in December if the economy does not slow significantly.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68.08 points, or 0.39 percent, to 17,554.97. The S&P 500 lost 7.30 points, or 0.35 percent, to 2,063.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 9.70 points, or 0.19 percent, to 5,025.01.

On Monday, U.S. stocks closed mixed after wavering in a tight range, as Wall Street digested quarterly earnings and economic data ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. Endi