Stocks Opened Lower; Oil Touched One-month Low

U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday as investors weighed choppy trade in oil prices against a dovish stance of the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 23.22 points, or 0.13%, to 17,769.53. The S&P 500 was off by 1.85 points, or 0.09%, to2,070.93. The Nasdaq Composite was down 3.12 points, or 0.06%, to 4,911.42.

Oil held around its lowest in a month on Monday as investors ditched some of their bullish bets on another price rise. Brent crudefutures were 14 cents higher at $38.81 a barrel by 1232 GMT. U.S. crude futures were 22 cents higher at $37.01.

Tesla Motors’ CEO says worldwide orders for a new lower-priced electric car hit 276,000 last weekend. Tesla’s new Model 3 starts at$35,000 and has a range of 215 miles per charge. Customers must put down $1,000 to order the cars, which go on sale in late 2017.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. said Monday it plans to sell its stake in Indian outsourcing firm Mphasis Ltd. for about $825 million to Blackstone Group LP, as the U.S. technology company seeks to shore up capital following a recent decline in revenue.

Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, two of the most profitable and best performing airlines, are merging in an effort to create thenation’s fifth largest carrier with an increased presence in high growth cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washingtonand New York City.