US stocks lacking direction as investors brace for this week’s key event risks

Major US equity indices opened with minor losses in wake of the latest terror attacks in London and volatile oil prices.

Geopolitical concerns in the Middle East, after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Bahrain snapped diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar has raised skepticism over effectiveness of the latest OPEC-led production cut deal extension and triggered a fresh bout of volatility in oil prices, which eventually dented investors' appetite for riskier assets - like equities.

Moreover, investors also seemed reluctant to initiate fresh trading bets ahead of a trio of destabilizing event risks over the course of this week - former FBI director James Comey’s testimony, the UK general election, and the ECB monetary-policy meeting. 

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At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down around 25-points to 21,180, while the broader S&P 500 Index lost over 3-points to 2,435. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was flat-lined around the 6,300 mark.