US stocks tilt lower amid Q2 earnings reports season

US stocks opened lower in early trading today as more corporate earnings results for the second quarter continued, in addition to worries about the trade war.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that a conference call would be held between US trade officials and their counterparts from China, but he expressed uncertainty about the possibility of reaching an agreement.

This came as US President Donald Trump threatened to impose more tariffs on imports of Chinese goods worth 325 billion dollars.

Data from the US Department of Labor revealed that the number of initial jobless claims rose by about 8,000 to 216,000 last week.

In terms of trade, by 14:41 GMT, Dow Jones fell by less than 0.1% (24 points) to 27,195 points, while Nasdaq fell 0.1% (12 points) to 8,172 points, and S&P 500 settled at 2,985 points.