Stocks open lower on Wall Street; Boeing weighs on the Dow

Stocks fell in early trading on Monday, adding to the declines that started last week as investors continue to be concerned about rising interest rates and the potential for inflation down the road.

The S&P 500 was down 0.7% as of 10:25 a.m. Eastern, pulled down technology and health care companies which have done well over the past year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq was down 1.4%.

Boeing fell 0.5% announcing it would ground its 777 fleet after a Pratt & Whitney engine exploded on a United Airlines flight on a Boeing 777 over the weekend, sending debris hurdling to the ground and requiring an emergency landing by the pilots. No one was injured. Raytheon, the defense contractor that owns Pratt & Whitney, fell 1.3%.

Investors remain focused on the future of global economies badly hit by COVID-19 and the potential for more stimulus to fix them.

The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to vote on Biden’s proposed stimulus package by the end of the week. It would include $1,400 checks to most Americans, additional payments for children, and billions of dollars in aid to state and local governments as well as additional aid to businesses impacted by the pandemic.

But the large amount of stimulus being pumped into the economy has given some investors pause as worries of inflation have reentered the market after being nonexistent for more than a decade. Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds and notes have risen in the last several weeks as investors have predicted more inflation would come with the economic recovery.