NEW YORK, July 6 — Wall Street stocks dipped early today as markets awaited key economic releases and weighed recession fears against the view that equities are oversold.

The day’s calendar includes a reading of services industry business sentiment and release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting.

Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investment said a "big collapse” in commodities prices has altered the inflation outlook after a decades-high surge in consumer prices over the last year.

"What that means now is the Fed doesn’t have to tighten as aggressively as it had to a few months ago,” Sarhan said. That dynamic "can set the stage for a near term rally on Wall Street because the market is so oversold, and so due to bounce.”

However, the alternate view worries the upcoming corporate earnings period will showcase a much weakened profit outlook amid recession risk, potentially leading the market lower.

About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down less than 0.1 per cent at 30,956.31.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent to 3,822.64, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.4 per cent to 11,273.90. — AFP