Wall St slumps at open as China, Greece weighs

US stocks slumped at the open on Wednesday, pushing the bluechip Dow Jones Industrial average into negative territory for the year, as Chinese markets slid further and as the Greece debt crisis dragged on. The decline also pushed the Nasdaq Composite index to its lowest level in two months and the S&P 500 index to its lowest level in over four months. At 9:42 am ET (1342 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 156.73 points, or 0.88 per cent, at 17,620.18. The S&P 500 was down 16.55 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 2,064.79 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 43.67 points, or 0.87 per cent, at 4,953.79. All the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the telecommunications index's 1.7 per cent fall leading the declines. Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 2,120 to 587. On the Nasdaq, 1,836 issues fell and 500 advanced. The S&P 500 index showed one new 52-week highs and one new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 27 new lows, according to Reuters.