Stocks Opened Lower amid Oil Slump

U.S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday as a renewed slump in oil prices again hit energy companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately dropped 120.80 points, or 0.68%, to 17,680.40. The S&P 500 was down 12.77 points, or 0.62%, to 2,047.05. The Nasdaq Composite fell 20.88 points, or 0.44%, to 4,745.58.

OPEC cut the forecast for how much crude oil it will need to provide in 2015 to the lowest in 12 years amid surging U.S. shale supplies and reduced estimates for global consumption. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries lowered its projection for 2015 by about 300,000 barrels a day, to 28.9 million a day.

BP (BP.L) will cut thousands of jobs cut across its global oil and gas business by the end of next year in a $1 billion restructuring programme announced on Wednesday following steep falls in oil prices. The British oil major said it was also considering deeper cuts to its 2015 budget beyond the $1-$2 billion reduction already announced in October, as a result of the oil slump.

House and Senate lawmakers reached an agreement Tuesday evening on a nearly $1.1 trillion bill to fund most of the government through September and avert a shutdown.

A Merck & Co. drug shrank tumors in about 18.5% of women with an aggressive form of breast cancer in a small clinical trial, an early sign of the potential of immunotherapy to treat breast tumors.

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