US stocks fall on fresh oil price weakness

US stocks Wednesday dropped in early trade as petroleum-linked equities suffered more losses on the latest retreat in oil prices.
About 25 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,678.52, down 122.68 points (0.69 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 12.80 (0.62 percent) to 2,047.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 20.24 (0.42 percent) to 4,746.23.
Dow component ExxonMobil fell 2.4 percent and oil-services titan Weatherford International tumbled 4.4 percent on falling oil prices as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecast lower demand for its crude in 2015.
International markets steadied after Tuesday's rout. Shanghai's index jumped nearly three percent on hopes for more Chinese government stimulus. Equity markets in Britain, France and Germany all rose.
Dow component JPMorgan Chase fell 2.0 percent after the Federal Reserve said the largest US bank by assets would need $22 billion more in capital by 2019 to meet new capital rules for systemically important financial institutions.
Costco Wholesale, a retail chain selling groceries, appliances and other items, rose 1.3 percent as fiscal first-quarter net income rose 16.7 percent to $496 million on a five percent gain in comparable sales.
Yum Brands, which owns KFC and other fast-food chains, fell 3.4 percent after saying its China division's same-store sales for 2014 would be "negative mid-single digits" due to an unexpectedly slow recovery following a tainted-meat scandal involving a supplier.
Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury held steady at 2.22 percent, while the 30-year dipped to 2.87 percent from 2.88 percent Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move inversely.