US: Stocks mostly lower ahead of Apple results, jobs data

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks were mostly lower in early trading Monday ahead of a heavy calendar of news events this week that includes Apple earnings and the October US jobs report.

The Federal Reserve will be a key focus, with a two-day meeting culminating with a monetary policy announcement Wednesday, and the White House expected to announce its pick to lead the US central bank.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2 per cent to 23,379.67.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.2 per cent to 2,576.37, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 per cent to 6,709.19.

The downcast open to the trading week came amid edginess after Paul Manafort, the former head of President Donald Trump's campaign, was indicted in the Russia probe, and amid worries about the messy debate over the future of Catalonia and Spain.

While those are indeed issues for investors, analysts also said the market was due for a pullback following a succession of records over the last month. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 finished at all-time highs on Friday.

AFP