US stocks open lower as oil equities retreat

New York  - Wall Street stocks opened lower on Friday as petroleum-linked equities tumbled on a retreat in oil prices.

Leading oil producers including Dow member Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Hess were all down more than one percent, while drillers Transocean and Nabors Industries shed more than two percent as the crude market continued to face surplus supply.

US data showed a slight pickup in consumer prices in August, but still weaker than the Federal Reserve has targeted.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 18 120.44, down 0.5%.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5% to 2 136.48, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.3% to 5 235.85.