U.S. Stocks Open Lower as Economic Data From China Disappoints By Investing.com

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com — U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday after economic data from China disappointed and investors brace for retail sales data and earnings from big retailers in the U.S.

At 9:58 AM ET, the fell 175 points, or 0.5%  while the was down 0.7% and the was down 1%.

China’s economy was hit by Covid lockdowns, as shown in fresh data. April retail sales there fell 11.1% from a year ago, more than the expected 6.1%. Industrial production fell 2.9% from last year. 

The Dow is lower for the seventh time in eight days. Goldman Sachs economists cut their outlook for U.S. GDP growth to 2.4% this year from their earlier forecast of 2.6%, citing tighter financial conditions.

for April are due out from the government early Tuesday. Analysts are expecting a 0.9% gain from March as consumers keep spending despite a lack of government stimulus funds and higher prices for household goods. A slew of retail earnings are also on deck this week, starting with Walmart Inc (NYSE:) on Tuesday and Target Corporation (NYSE:) on Wednesday.

Spirit Airlines Inc (NYSE:) shares jumped 9.9% after JetBlue Airways Corp (NASDAQ:) made a hostile $30 a share tender offer for the company. Spirit had already rebuffed an offer from JetBlue in favor of a takeover offer from Frontier Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:).

Twitter Inc (NYSE:) shares fell 4% after Elon Musk told his followers on the social media platform that the company’s lawyers said he violated a nondisclosure agreement. Musk is in a $44 billion deal to buy the company, but wants to slow down until he can assess the number of spam accounts. 

Oil was mixed. ticked higher by 0.1%, to $108.70 a barrel while fell 0.1% to $111.44 a barrel. was flat at $1,807 an ounce.