Stock markets open lower, retail stocks in the red this morning

The Yahoo Finance Live team breaks discusses the stock market at the open, taking a closer look Microsoft, Nvidia, Walmart, Target, and Dollar General.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: There, you got the opening bell on Wall Street on this Tuesday. Let's do a quick check of the markets here now that the bell has rung, sponsored by FlexShares. And we do have this push lower across the board. We'll see it in the NASDAQ when it opens up in just a moment.

But all three major averages not seeing a big decline here. But nonetheless, futures have been bouncing around a little bit this morning, before, now, this lower cash open. All three averages down about a quarter too-- in the case of the Dow, about a fourth of 1%. So the focus, not just today, but all week, as we've been talking about, is going to be on the consumer.

And the early indications, especially if you look at Home Depot, not great.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah. Well, we're taking a look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average here. Out of the gate this morning, you're seeing that lower, as Julie mentioned, by about 4/10 of a percent. We'll round that off too. NASDAQ Composite also in the red by about a quarter of a percent.

Past two days, though, still holding on to some slight gains, fractionally higher by about 4/10 of percent there. S&P 500, flat-- about as flat as it gets, holding on by a hair of its chinny chin chin to the upside here over the past two days. But here, today, it's down by about a quarter of a percent. So let's take a look at the S&P 500 sectors, as we always do, just to start off your trading session.

11 sectors, we've got them loaded up here for you on the screen. Pulling up the caboose, consumer discretionary here. And think about some of those categories that we were talking about with regard to the retail sales data that came out this morning. Consumer discretionary, that's down 8/10 of a percent. Staples, actually, even down by about 3/4 of percent this morning.

But look at technology. That's actually the lone gainer, the Lone Ranger in the green. It's up by about 1/10 of a percent. Speaking of technology, let's take a look at the NASDAQ 100 here. Some of those megacap tech stocks trying to put the team on its back in a sea of red.

You've got some green among the largest of the companies here. Microsoft, fractional gains there out of the gate. That's up 7/10 of a percent, Google, Alphabet, Alpha Google, whatever you're calling them, call them in the green. And Nvidia, the chipmaker, you're seeing that higher by about 2/10 of a percent. Plus, 2/10 of a percent gains for Apple and Amazon, just a little bit more than that as well.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. We've yet to get those Nvidia earnings too.

BRAD SMITH: Right.

JULIE HYMAN: That's the last of the biggies. I think we have retailers on--

BRAD SMITH: We do.

JULIE HYMAN: --our heat map, somewhere there. You might need to go to a different list of them. We got a lot of heat maps. But I'm curious to-- as we get underway-- there they are. HD down 3%. Lowe's looks like it's getting pulled down too.

BRAD SMITH: And look at this. Kind of previewing what we're going to be waiting for later on this week. Of course, Walmart, you're seeing that down by about 1 and 1/2% right now. Target also lower by about 2.9% on the same day as their retail sales data coming out this morning.

And even into some of the dollar store retailers, those are interesting to track, especially when consumers are looking for more of those discounts, are looking for some type of deal wherever they can find one. Let's zero in, just very quickly here, on Dollar General and Dollar Tree. Dollar General, you're seeing that down by about 1.2% even, right now.

And then, additionally, Dollar Tree, that's down by about 1%. So largely red across the board. Amazon, the only company on this board-- well, not the only company on this board that's already put earnings out, but one of the only retail companies on this board that we've heard from earlier on in the season--

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

BRAD SMITH: --because, well, it's a big tech company.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. And retail sales showed that nonstore retail actually went up.