Wall Street opens lower as investors remain cautious amid N Korea tensions

Wall Street opened lower on Tuesday as investors remained cautious after North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test over the weekend.

North Korea on Sunday conducted its sixth nuclear test, which it said was of an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, marking a dramatic escalation of the regime's stand-off with the United States and its allies.

The United States blamed North Korea's trading partners on Monday of aiding its nuclear ambitions and the White House declared that "all options to address the North Korean threat are on the table."

"We see no panic in the market just as yet, it feels like it is the calm before the storm and investors are being somewhat cautious," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.

Equity markets have shown resilience to geopolitical events surrounding North Korea of late, with initial losses erased relatively quickly.

Safe-haven gold pulled back from a one-year high in its first drop in four days. [GOL/]

At 9:39 a.m. ET (1339 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 99.19 points, or 0.45 percent, at 21,888.37 and the S&P 500 was down 8.52 points, or 0.34 percent, at 2,468.03.
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