Wall Street Opens Lower Ahead of Big Tech Earnings; Dow Down 40 Pts

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened modestly lower in relatively low volumes on Monday, ahead of a week set to be marked by earnings from Big Tech.

By 9:45 AM ET (1345 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 37 points, or 0.1%, at 35,640 points. The S&P 500 was also down 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was flat. 

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) will be the first of the megacaps to report, having lost its $1 trillion moniker in recent weeks under a barrage of negative publicity about its governance and its operating outlook. Facebook stock underperformed again in early dealings, losing 0.3% after more allegations of poor governance were levelled at it over the weekend by a second whistleblower. The stock fell another 0.4% to test the five-month low that it hit earlier in October. Sentiment toward social media stocks in general was dented last week by Snap (NYSE:SNAP)'s announcement that advertisers had slowed their spending after Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) made it harder for social media companies to target ads with its latest privacy rules.

That negative mood music is leaving social-driven stocks vulnerable to other disappointments. Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) stock fell 14% after PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) said it isn't currently considering a merger with the site. PayPal stock rose 4.9% on relief - reports that it was lining up a deal had hit the payments company's stock on perceptions that the price was too high.

Tesla  (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock rose 4.4% to a new all-time high after car rental firm Hertz Global (OTC:HTZZ), which went into and out of bankruptcy over the last two years, said it had ordered 100,000 of Tesla's Model 3 sedans for its car rental fleet. The cars will be delivered over the next 14 months.  Bloomberg reported people familiar with the matter as saying that Hertz will pay close to the standard retail price for the cars, in contrast to the discounts that car hire companies can usually demand for bulk purchases.

The speculative frenzy around former Donald Trump's new social media business cooled a little, as Digital World Acquisition stock rose a 'mere' 4.5% after a 10-fold rise in the past week. The recently-listed SPAC is set to merge with Trump Media and Technology Co., which will house the former President's new social media platform. Phunware stock, which had also shot up last week on speculation that it will develop the company's app, also rose a relatively sober 4.1%.

Elsewhere, Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) stock fell 3.7% after the maker of paper towels and toilet tissue said it expected significant upward cost pressure from supply chain disruption that it said is "unlikely" to disappear quickly.

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A fresh surge in oil and gas prices helped stocks in that sector push broadly higher. U.S. crude futures traded above $85 a barrel for the first time in seven years, lifting in particular those stocks with relatively high exposure to the crude price, such as Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), which needs a high oil price to service the debts it took when acquiring Anadarko for $55 billion two years ago. Occidental stock rose 5.2% to its highest in 20 months.