By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened higher on Monday, as negative news surrounding Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and General Motors (NYSE:GM) tempered hopes fanned by the partial easing of lockdown measures in New York and Europe.
By 10:10 AM ET (1410 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 173 points or 0.7% at 23,948 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.2%.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock lagged the market, rising only 0.1%, after it was reported by the Wall Street Journal to be planning a delay of around one month in bringing this year's flagship iPhone models to market. The WSJ said supply chain disruption and the likelihood of subdued customer demand in the near term were responsible.
Elsewhere, General Motors (NYSE:GM) stock fell 0.7% after the company suspended its buyback program and quarterly dividend in an effort to preserve liquidity. GM, which like other carmakers is suffering from a steep decline in sales with many dealerships across the country closed, also said it had extended a $3.6 billion revolving credit facility.
Rival Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 8.1% at a two-month high after Bloomberg reported that it wants to restart its Fremont factory as early as this week. The facility has been shut for the last few weeks due to California's lockdown measures, and its failure to convince the authorities that it is an "essential" operation.
Global stocks were also supported by the Bank of Japan's announcement earlier in the day that it would increase its stimulus efforts, while there is also speculation that the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank will both announce fresh support measures at their policy meetings later in the week.
Conditions in the oil market continued to be a drag on stocks in general, however. as the front-month U.S. crude futures contract was crushed by more repositioning from the U.S. Oil ETF (NYSE:USO). The June contract for West Texas Intermediate fell by 25% to $12.63 a barrel, while the global benchmark Brent fell 7.5% to $22.96 a barrel.
The crude price dragged down Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) stock by 6.0%, while Hess (NYSE:HES) stock fell 2.5%. The two were the biggest customers of Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE:DO), which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the weekend.
Elsewhere, Boeing (NYSE:BA) stock was down 1.7% after the plane-maker walked away from a $4.2 billion deal to buy the regional jet business of Brazil's Embraer. The Brazilian company has filed suit in an arbitration tribunal.