US equity markets weaker to open September as fresh gains for oil prices and bond yields stoked inflation concerns and dented investor sentiment – Dow lost -419-points or -0.79% to 52,766.88, its lowest close since 31 July and settling below its 50-day moving average (52,849.85) for the first time since 10 April [From 10 April, the Dow rallied 20.3% to its 5 August record close of 54,349.12].

Caterpillar Inc (down -2.3%), The Home Depot (-2.46%) and Sherwin-Williams Co (-2.62%) all declining over >2%.

Members of the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ cohort of mega-capitalisation technology stocks also struggled for a second session running, with Amazon.com Inc (-1.87%), Alphabet Inc (-1.28%) and Nvidia Corp (-1.51%) all down over >1%.

However, Apple Inc rallied +2.61% as John Ternus took the helm as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) following the 15-year tenure of now-retired Tim Cook.