Stocks Opened Lower, Oil Traded Slightly Lower

U.S. stocks opened lower on Thursday as investors grappled with uncertainty surrounding interest rates in the wake of Federal Reserve meeting and the latest round of earnings added little cheer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 117.25 points, or 0.49%, to 23,807.73. The S&P 500 was down 10.87 points, or 0.41%, to 2,624.80. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 13.68 points, or 0.19%, to 7,087.22.

Crude-oil prices traded slightly lower early Thursday, with investors wrestling with a rise in weekly rise in U.S. crude supplies. June West Texas Intermediate crude oil slipped by 21 cents, or less than 0.3%, to $67.72 a barrel. July Brent fell by 53 cents, or 0.7%, to $72.83 a barrel.

Record exports trimmed the U.S. trade deficit in March, the first drop in seven months in a massive gap that President Donald Trump is determined to shrink with an aggressive America first policy. The Commerce Department says the trade deficit slid to $49 billion, down from $57.7 billion in February and lowest since September.

Tesla Inc. late Wednesday reported first-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street expectations and said it had made “significant progress” on Model 3 production. Tesla (TSLA) said it lost $709.6 million in the quarter, or $4.19 a share, compared with a loss of $330.3 million, or $2.04 a share, in the year-ago period. Sales rose to $3.41 billion, compared with $2.70 billion a year ago.