US stocks mixed at open; Boeing remains under pressure

New York, March 12: US stocks were mixed at the open on Tuesday, as aviation giant Boeing remained under pressure amid safety concerns following the deadly crash of one of its aircraft.

After recovering from a dismal opening on Monday, stocks continued to move higher despite Boeing's renewed decline.

And there was no bad news in the latest US inflation data, which saw a modest uptick in February while the annual rate declined.

About 10 minutes into the trading day, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a fraction to 25,629.36, but the broader S&P 500 added 0.3 percent to 2,791.48, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.2 percent to 7,575.52.

Boeing, which is heavily weighted in the Dow, fell another four percent to $384.57, after the five percent drop Monday.

The crash Sunday of one of the company's highly popular 737 MAX 8 jets killed all 157 passengers and crew have and was the second in five months. Safety concerns have led several countries to ground the aircraft or ban the aircraft from their airspace.

Airlines which use the jets also lost ground, with United Continental and Alaska Air falling 1.8 percent and Southwest Airlines losing 1.6 percent.

However, consumer prices remained tame, and falling energy costs drove the annual inflation rate down to 1.5 percent in February, its lowest in more than two years.

"It has been a good week and it's only one-trading day old," said analyst Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com. "At the moment, there is nothing too terrible about day two."

(AFP/APP)