Stocks Opened Lower, Oil Prices Rallied

Stocks opened lower on Wednesday as investors gauged the potential recession signal offered by the inverted U.S. Treasury yield curve and awaited further developments in the U.S.-China trade war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 64.36 points, or 0.25%, to 25,713.54. The S&P 500 lost 8.57 points, or 0.30%, to 2,860.59. The Nasdaq Composite declined 39.72 points, or 0.51%, to 7,787.23.

Oil futures rallied Wednesday after data from an industry trade group showed a large drop in crude supplies ahead of an official weekly report on inventory levels. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery rose 74 cents, or 1.3%, to $55.67 a barrel. November Brent was up 55 cents, or 0.9%, at $59.58 a barrel.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year bond fell 4.8 basis points below that of the 2-year note, diving further into an inversion. The 30-year yield dropped below 2% to an all-time low of 1.905%, falling below U.S. government debt with a 3-month duration.

Tiffany (TIF) reported stronger-than-expected earnings results for its fiscal second quarter, while sales fell short of estimates. Tiffany posted earnings of $1.12 per share, or 7 cents a share ahead of expectations, on revenue of $1.05 billion, slightly short of the $1.06 billion expected.