US open: Stocks slide as tech rout continues

Wall Street stocks were sharply lower after the bell on Tuesday as tech stocks continued on with their worst performance since March.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.50% at 27,710.73, while the S&P 500 was 1.51% weaker at 3,375.10 and the Nasdaq Composite started out the session 1.76% softer at 11,114.45.

The Dow opened 422.58 points lower on Tuesday, extending losses recorded in the previous session when technology shares suffered their worst sell-off in more than five months.

Besides the ongoing tech rout, geopolitical developments were also weighing on sentiment on Tuesday after China accused the US of "bullying" following the launch of Beijing's global data security initiative.

China's new programme comes as a result of Washington's continued crackdown on the Asian nation's largest tech firms and pressuring of other countries around the world to block access to them.

Donald Trump also recently discussed the concept of a "decoupling" from China and refusing to do business with the country altogether as part of an effort to make America the "manufacturing superpower of the world".

On the macro front, confidence in the US economy increased among small-business owners in August, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. The NFIB's small business optimism index came in at 100.2 in August, a 1.4 point monthly increase - slightly above the historical 46-year average and expectations for a reading of 99.1.

Still to come, consumer credit figures for July will be released at 2000 BST.

In corporate news, Tesla shares were lower after a rebalancing of the S&P 500 unexpectedly saw the electric carmaker out of the benchmark, while Boeing shares were also weaker at the open following a report from the Wall Street Journal that claimed production problems at a 787 Dreamliner factory led air-safety regulators to review potentially decade-long quality-control lapses.