US stocks open in red, weighed down by trade fears and tech sell-off

Major US equity indices kicked off a new week/quarter on a weaker note and were being weighed down by some renewed trade worries.

Investors returned from the long Easter weekend and reacted to fresh developments on the trade-war front. In response to the latest US duties on imports of steel and aluminum, China announced retaliatory tariffs on US food imports and revived fears of escalating dispute between the world's two largest economies. 

This coupled with the ongoing slump in technology stocks, led by the recent Facebook security breach, continued eroding investors' sentiment and weighed on the broader markets, further collaborating to the weaker tone during the opening hour of trade.

At the time of writing this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped around 45-points to 24,060 and the broader S&P 500 Index lost nearly 15-points to 2,625. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index continued with its underperformance and tumbled over 75-points, or 1.0%, to slip back below the 7,000 mark.