US open: Stocks turn red ahead of Powell testimony
US stocks opened lower on Wednesday as market thumbed over notes from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress later in the session.
As of 1530 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.06% at 27,675.28, while the S&P 500 opened 0.10% weaker at 3,088.83 and the Nasdaq Composite started out the session 0.12% lower at 8,476.13.
The Dow opened 16.21 points softer as investors seemed somewhat disappointed by comments overnight from Donald Trump regarding a potential resolution to America and China's protracted trade war.
CMC Markets' David Madden said: "The markets were underwhelmed by the update from President Trump yesterday, hence why stocks are in the red."
Elsewhere, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Washington and Beijing had reached an impasse in talks as the US remained undecided about whether it would remove existing tariffs on Chinese exports or simply cancel those duties which had been set to come into effect on 15 December.
Perhaps of most interest though, Fed chair Jerome Powell had begun his testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress at 1600 GMT.
In the central bank head's prepared remarks, which were released ahead of time, Powell said the baseline outlook for the economy remained favourable, helped by the Fed's three quarter-point rate cuts from July through October.
Powell was upbeat about the economic outlook, seeing continued moderate growth and low inflation but turned a bit dovish as he cautioned there were "notable risks" facing the economy from sluggish growth and "trade developments".
On the data front, the cost of living in the US increased more quickly than expected last month amid rapid increases in food and energy prices, especially for the latter, but stripping out those two categories it surprised to the downside.
According to the Department of Labor, headline consumer prices jumped at a 0.4% month-on-month pace in October, pushing the year-on-year rate of gain up by a tenth of a percentage point to 1.8% (consensus: 1.7%).
At the core level, however, the rate of advance in CPI was more subdued, slipping from a 2.4% pace for September to 2.3% in October (consensus: 2.4%).
Still to come, the US monthly budget statement for October will be posted at 1900 GMT.
In corporate news, Tencent and Cisco will both publish results during the course of the day.