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U.S. stocks open lower ahead of Fed officials' speech

Xinhua, October 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened lower Friday, as investors awaited remarks from the U.S. Federal Reserve officials and digested the newly-released corporate earnings.

Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo and San Francisco Fed President John Williams are due to speak later Friday. Investors are looking for more indications on the timing of a next interest rate hike.

In corporate news, Microsoft posted better-than-expected quarterly results after Thursday's closing bell. The tech giant's net income was 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, and diluted earnings per share were 60 cents for the third quarter 2016.

Before Friday's opening bell, General Electric (GE) delivered quarterly earnings above estimates but revenues shy of forecast. Shares of GE dipped over 2 percent in the early trading Friday after the company's mixed results.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 99.54 points, or 0.55 percent, to 18,062.81. The S&P 500 was down 9.39 points, or 0.44 percent, to 2,131.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 9.55 points, or 0.18 percent, to 5,232.29.

U.S. stocks slid Thursday as a sharp decline in oil prices weighed on the market. Endi