US stocks open lower as virus cases mount

Wall Street stocks opened lower Tuesday as the Federal Reserve unveiled a new vehicle to boost market liquidity and the coronavirus case count continued to climb.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.0 per cent at 22,103.22.

The broad-based S&P 500 also fell 1.0 per cent to 2,600.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.5 per cent to 7,733.30.

The Fed announced a new facility to permit foreign central banks to temporarily swap holdings of US Treasury debt for dollars, the latest initiative to inject liquidity into financial markets.

More governments around the world are extending their lockdowns as the coronavirus case count rises ever higher, with Mexico prolonging a state of emergency to April 30 and European governments and individual US states discussing additional measures to contain the outbreak.

There have been more than 790,000 cases around the world and more than 38,000 fatalities.

Markets will have an opportunity in the coming days to weigh a plethora of economic indicators, including consumer confidence, jobless claims and the March jobs report.