Wall Street opens lower as trade war fears escalate

(Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes opened lower on Friday as renewed fears of a trade conflict between the United States and China outweighed a lower-than-expected March jobs data that eased concerns over aggressive interest rate hikes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 234.05 points, or 0.96 percent, to 24,271.17. The S&P 500 lost 22.96 points, or 0.862237 percent, to 2,639.88. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 78.46 points, or 1.11 percent, to 6,998.10.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)