Stocks Open Lower on Wall Street Ahead of Data Crush

Stocks were sharply lower on Wall Street on Monday, after losses overseas and ahead of a busy week on the economic news front.

KEEPING SCORE The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.88 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down 0.83 percent. The Nasdaq composite dropped 0.84 percent. Global stock markets largely edged down as investors watched pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, where the main Hang Seng index closed down 1.9 percent on Monday.

HONG KONG TENSIONS Pro-democracy protests escalated on Monday, raising concerns that business in this Asian financial hub might be disrupted. In a rare scene of disorder, thousands of people took to the streets over the weekend in a challenge to Beijing's decision to limit political reforms. Police fired tear gas and detained 78 protesters but failed to break up the rally.

ANALYST TAKE 'Sentiment is downbeat for a variety of reasons, not least due to the growing unrest in Hong Kong,' said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Forex.com.

DEAL AHEAD? DreamWorks Animation soared 18 percent as media reports suggested the animation studio was in discussions with SoftBank about a possible deal.

OVER THERE In France, the CAC 40 was 0.7 percent lower, while in Germany, the DAX fell the same amount. The FTSE 100 of leading British shares was 0.3 percent lower.

ASIA'S DAY Concerns over the situation in Hong Kong weighed on most markets in Asia. In Australia, the S.&P./ASX 200 fell 0.9 percent and stocks in Taipei, Seoul and Singapore also edged down. In Japan, however, the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5 percent and the Shanghai Composite added 0.4 percent in China.

BUSY WEEK AHEAD As well as monitoring developments in Hong Kong and other geopolitical hot spots around the world, investors have a raft of economic news to digest. In addition to Thursday's monthly policy meeting of the European Central Bank, there is a flow of economic data from the United States that culminates on Friday with the nonfarm payrolls report for September. That often sets the market tone for a week or two as traders assess what effect it may have on the policy of the Federal Reserve. Last month's 142,000 increase was lower than anticipated and pushed out market expectations of when the central bank would start raising interest rates. Traders will want to see whether August's modest increase was a blip or the start of a period of slower jobs growth in the world's largest economy.

CURRENCIES The dollar could be an important mover after the payroll figures. On Monday, the euro was up 0.2 percent, at $1.27, while the dollar was flat at 109.21 yen. The dollar has been rising recently as the United States economy has outperformed its major competitors and as traders price in the prospect of interest rate increases from the Fed in contrast to the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, where monetary policy remains extremely easy.

ENERGY Benchmark United States crude oil fell 25 cents, to $93.29 a barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

BONDS Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.48 percent.

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