US stock market opens lower

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) – New York’s stock market opened lower Monday with the fall in oil prices and hawkish remarks from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones fell 47 points to begin the day at 18,037 and the S&P 500 was down four points at 2,123. The Nasdaq decreased 10 points to start the day at 5,115.

Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said in a speech before market opening that the U.S. economy had sustained a pace that would support the Fed’s monetary policy and suggested the bank should have a “serious discussion” about an interest rate hike.

His comments were accompanied by a fall in oil prices. At the first bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 1.7 percent to $44.91 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $47.10 a barrel -- a 1.5 percent decline.