Wall St opens lower, dragged down by financials

Wall Street opened lower on Tuesday, led by financial stocks, as investors remained cautious and chose safer assets on mounting concerns of a prolonged slowdown in global economic growth.

At 9:30 a.m. ET the Dow Jones industrial average was down 72.46 points, or 0.45 percent, at 15,954.59.

The S&P 500 was down 13.74 points, or 0.74 percent, at 1,839.7 and the Nasdaq Composite index was down 57.20 points, or 1.34 percent, at 4,226.55.