NEW YORK, May 19 — Wall Street stocks were mostly lower early today ahead of congressional testimony by top US economic policymakers as Walmart shares jumped on strong quarterly results.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 24,455.52, down 0.6 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 per cent to 2,945.51, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.3 per cent at 9,258.56.

Investors were looking ahead to testimony this morning by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, the two officials leading the US response to the economic crisis caused by Covid-19.

The session comes as congressional Democrats and Republicans remain divided on the need for additional federal emergency spending as the US economy absorbs the hit from the loss of more than 36 million jobs since mid-March following coronavirus shutdowns.

Among individual companies, Walmart rose 1.4 per cent as it reported higher first-quarter profits on surging demand in the US fuelled by a 74 per cent jump in e-commerce sales.

The dip in early trading comes after yesterday’s rally, which saw the Dow pile on 3.9 per cent following positive news on the first clinical tests of a coronavirus vaccine candidate. — AFP