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U.S. stocks open lower on Apple shares plunge

Xinhua, April 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday as Apple's worse-than-expected earnings weighed on Wall Street.

The technology giant announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 26, 2016 after Tuesday's closing bell, which showed the company experienced its first year-on-year slump in both quarterly revenue and profit since 2003 and the first ever drop in iPhone sales. Shares of Apple plummeted 6.96 percent in early trading Wednesday.

Apple posted quarterly revenue of 50.6 billion U.S. dollars, down 33 percent from the previous quarter and 13 percent from a year ago. Its quarterly net income decreased 22 percent from one year ago to 10.5 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, investors kept a close eye on the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The Federal Open Market Committee will announce its latest rate decision when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged after a mixed bag of economic data and recent financial market volatility.

Investors will look into the statement for clues on when the Fed will raise the interest rate the next time.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked down 11.06 points, or 0.06 percent, to 17,979.26. The S&P 500 shed 0.24 points, or 0.01 percent, to 2,091.46. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 22.70 points, or 0.46 percent, at 4,865.58. Endi