Wall Street opens in the red

Wall Street began Tuesday’s session firmly in the red as worries about inflation and a tech sell off sent the main indices lower in early trading. Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.75% at 34,482 while the S&P 500 dropped 1.13% to 4,141 and the Nasdaq sank 1.89% to 13,148. One of the tech stocks on the slide was electric car maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), which fell 4.1% to US$603.36 in early deals after downbeat sales data from China. 7:50am: Wall Street set to sink The main indices on Wall Street are expected to open sharply lower on Tuesday morning as jitters around inflation unnerve investors. Technology shares are set to bear the brunt of the selling again, with investors seeking lower-risk assets which are likely to give a better return in an environment of higher inflation and rising interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to open down around 0.45% or 140 points at 34,602, while the S&P 500 is set for a 0.78% fall and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is forecast to drop 1.38%. Sophie Griffiths, market analyst at OANDA, said: "With China and the US, the world’s two largest economies, showing signs of rising inflationary pressures, investors are getting nervous. The overriding fear is that pandemic stimulus combined with reopening economies will spark a sharp drive high in inflation, forcing central banks to take action, tightening policy and potentially slowing down economic recovery... "US indices are pointing to further losses, with the tech sector once again taking the hardest hit. Big tech’s blowout earnings numbers from just a few weeks ago have already long since been forgotten, with other market dynamics in play now." Four things to watch for on Tuesday: The somewhat thin earnings diary is scheduled to see figures from Canadian miner Kinross Gold Corp (NYSE:KGC), online payments firm PaySafe Ltd (NYSE:PSFE) and foodservice and unform maker Aramark Corp (NYSE:ARMK) SPAC mergers are back in focus after startup mortgage lender Better unveiled plans to list on the market in a US$7bn acquisition deal Shares in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) may also draw some attention as the company continues its legal battle with Fortnite developer Epic Games On the macro data front, there will be some attention given to the latest US jobs opening figures (the JOLTS or job openings and labour turnover survey) after Friday's very disappointing non-farm payroll numbers, with expectations being for a rise in openings from just under 7.4mln to 7.5mln