US open: Wall Street opens down as big banks lose ground
US stocks turned slightly weaker at the start of trading on Wall Street on Friday as investors kept one eye on geopolitical developments and first reads on the earnings season from the country's biggest banks.
At 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were down 0.17% and 0.14%, respectively, while the Nasdaq had slipped 0.35% weaker.
"Sitting just below 24500, the Dow gave up on its promised 50 point open, instead settling for a 0.2% decline as the week began to wind down. Still, it has been a decent few days for the Dow, one that has largely seen the recent trade war concerns set to one side, in turn allowing the index to climb to the top of the trading bracket it has found itself in for the last 3 weeks," noted Connor Campbell, a financial analyst from Spreadex.
Geopolitics remained in focus after UK Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Trump agreed during a late-night phone conversation that Syria’s suspected use of chemical weapons should not go unchallenged.
Downing Street said Cabinet ministers had agreed "on the need to take action" to "deter further use of chemical weapons" after concluding that it was "highly likely" the Assad regime was behind the chemical attack.
UK Transport Minister Jo Johnson later said there had been no decision to take military action at this point.
But worries about the situation in Syria appeared to be somewhat offset by the latest tweet from Trump about the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
"Would only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres. Obama. We already have bilateral deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!"
Investors will also be digesting the latest data out of China earlier, which showed a surprise monthly trade deficit in March for the first time in 13 months.
China's trade balance swung to a deficit of $4.98bn from a surplus of $33.7bn the month before, versus expectations for a surplus of $19.6bn.
In corporate news, JPMorgan shares lost 1.77% after it said first-quarter profit rose 35% on the same period a year ago, partly thanks to lower taxes.
Citigroup shares fell 2.08% after posting rapidly expanding profits from its global consumer bank and a strong performance from its equities division that beat market expectations and Wells Fargo was down 2.87% after the bank emphasized that its results, which topped earnings forecasts, could be revised depending on the outcome of talks with regulators over a possible $1bn settlement.
Elsewhere, real estate listings company Zillow Group plunged 10.32% after saying late on Thursday that it will get into the business of buying and flipping homes.
SeaWorld Entertainment gained 2.56% after reporting losses late on Thursday.
On the data front, the Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 97.8 from 101.4, below the consensus, 100.4.
"The consensus always looked optimistic, given the sensitivity of the index to the stock market. Both current conditions and expectations fell, by 6.2 points and 2.0 points respectively," said Ian Shepherdson, Pantheon Macroeconomics' chief economist.