US stock market opens mixed

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - The stock market opened mixed Wednesday as oil prices continued their decline and lost more than 1 percent.

The Dow fell by 27 points to open at 20,640 points and the S&P went down less than a point to open flat at 2,343 points.

The Nasdaq decreased by seven points to begin trading at 5,801 points.

At the first bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $47.64 with a 1.2 percent loss.

The International benchmark Brent crude was at $50.29 with a 1.3 percent decline.

The market and investors will closely watch the weekly change in the U.S.' crude oil and gasoline inventories that could affect oil prices.