US stocks opened lower Monday as investors worried about deteriorating economic conditions in Europe, China and other big economies.
A slide in German business confidence on the Ifo index to its lowest level in two years weighed on market sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic. The downturn in Europe's biggest economy raised questions about its capacity to fund the eurozone debt crisis bailout.
After five minutes of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 56.03 points (0.41 percent) at 13,523.44.
The S&P 500-stock index fell 7.69 points (0.53 percent) to 1,452.46, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 26.60 points (0.84 percent) to 3,153.35.
"Clearly, Europe is moving deeper into recession," Fred Dickson at DA Davidson & Co. said in a client note.
"This presents a big problem for European countries with financial problems (Spain, Italy) but also weakens the case for stronger European countries to kick in huge amounts of funds into the various European Union financial rescue plans."
On Friday, stocks closed barely changed amid a dearth of market-moving news.
