US open: Stocks drift lower ahead of key presidential debate
Stocks on Wall Street came under modest selling pressure early on, despite the release of a surprisingly strong reading on US consumer sentiment.
That was at least partly due to investors choosing to sit on their hands ahead of a much anticipated televised debate between US President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, at 0200 BST.
"We're closing in on month and quarter end, which will likely have an impact on trading - the usual portfolio rebalancing that gets mentioned around this time - but more broadly speaking, we could just be seeing investors taking to the sidelines ahead of this evening's debate," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
"Joe Biden still has a healthy lead and therefore everything to lose, while the debating stage surely benefits President Trump as he looks to close the gap. The New York Times expose on Trump's tax affairs will certainly add extra spice to the evening, with the President going into the debate on the backfoot, meaning he'll probably come out all guns blazing."
As of 1604 BST, the Dow Jones Industrials was 0.56% weaker at 27,427.90, alongside a 0.41% drop for the S&P 500 to 3,338.67, while the Nasdaq Composite was off 0.23% to 11,092.71.
Critically, some pollsters believed that quite a few Americans were wary of openly supporting Trump, meaning that Trump might still have a chance at retaining the Presidency and Republicans the White House.
Market participants were also waiting on a slew of Fed speakers, including central bank Vice President, Richard Clarida, governor Randal Quarles, Philly Fed President Patrick Harker, and NY Fed chief John Williams.
On the economic front meanwhile, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index rebounded from two consecutive monthly falls in September, rising from August's reading of 86.3 to 101.8 (consensus: 90.0).
The S&P Case Shiller-Core Logic 20-City Composite house price index was ahead by 3.9% year-over-year in August (consensus: 3.6%), up from 3.5% in the previous month.