US markets trying to recover from Fed tapering talk

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stocks opened lower Thursday but were trying to climb into green territory to shake off the previous day's losses as the Federal Reserve discussed tapering its monthly asset purchase program.

The Dow Jones was down 31 points, or 0.1%, to 34,930 at 10 a.m. EDT, while the S&P 500 fell 1 point to 4,399. Both indexes lost more than 1% on Wednesday.

The Nasdaq was down 30, or 0.2%, to 14,495.

ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips lost more than 2% apiece amid falling oil prices, while Chevron was down 3%.

Brent crude lost 2.3% to $66.67 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dived as much to $63.69.

After three consecutive days of increase, the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, was down -- falling 1.3% to 21.27. The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes fell 1.4% to 1.255%.

The dollar index, on the other hand, climbed 0.23% to 93.35.

Precious metals were in negative territory as gold fell 0.55% to $1,777 per ounce. Silver lost 0.9% to $23.3.

The major sell-off came after the Fed's minutes from its July meeting revealed that officials discussed the $120 billion monthly asset purchase program and the central bank could soon begin to reduce accumulating new assets on its balance sheet in a process known as tapering.

"It could be appropriate to start reducing the pace of asset purchases this year," the Fed minutes said.