Stocks Opened Lower amid Greece Worries

U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday as investors turned cautious as concerns over Greece’s debt-default drama lingered. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately dropped 112.21 points, or 0.62%, to 17,927.16. The S&P 500 was down 11.41 points, or 0.54%, to 2,097.45. The Nasdaq Composite shed 25.41 points, or 0.50%, to 5,057.10.

The International Monetary Fund walked out on Greece’s bailout talks, increasing the risk of a Greek default and exit from the eurozone. An IMF spokesman cited lack of progress in talks as the reason for the negotiation breakdown.

A gauge of U.S. business prices rose in May as energy prices firmed, the latest sign inflation is stabilizing. The 0.5 percent increase in the producer-price index followed a 0.4 percent decline the prior month, Labor Department figures showed Friday in Washington.

Twitter Inc’s announcement that Dick Costolo would exit as CEO on July 1 was long on plaudits but offered few clues on how the company will tackle its biggest problem: user growth.

Oil prices slipped on Friday after the world’s top crude exporter Saudi Arabia said it was ready to raise output to new record highs. Brent crude (LCOc1) was trading 32 cents lower at $64.79 a barrel at 7 a.m. EDT, while U.S. light crude (CLc1) was down 53 cents at $60.24.

Yuan liberalization and the opening up of China’s capital account are likely to attract $400 billion of overseas funds to the nation’s stocks and bonds over the next five years, Morgan Stanley estimates.