US stock market opens lower

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - The stock market opened lower Tuesday with a decline in crude oil prices.

The Dow fell 44 points to begin trading at 21,035 points, and the S&P 500 lost 5 points to 2,410 points.

The Nasdaq decreased 7 points to start the first trading day of the new week at 6,202 points.

At the first bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 1.3 percent to $49.20 a barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude was trading at $51.73 per barrel -- 1.8 percent loss.

The stock market was closed on Monday for Memorial Day.