US stocks drop on weak data from China, Germany

New York - US stocks fell in opening trade on Tuesday, following European markets lower after weak Chinese trade data and a big drop in German investor sentiment.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17 051.99, down 79.87 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.49% to 2 007.49, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.60% to 4 809.77.

Chinese imports plunged by more than a fifth in September, data showed, the latest indicator of slowing growth in the world's second-biggest economy.

A widely watched German investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute tumbled 10.2 points to just 1.9 points this month, its lowest level since October 2014, in the wake of the Volkswagen pollution cheating scandal.