LONDON/NEW YORK – US stock prices were mixed in early Tuesday trading, as oil prices fell from near three-year highs reached after the world's main crude producers failed to set production plans.

Wall Street made a slow restart after the July 4 holiday, while Europe's equity markets spluttered at the prospect of higher inflation.

By 10:11 AM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 204.97 points, or 0.59 percent, to 34,581.38.

The broad S&P 500 was off 7.24 points, or 0.17 percent, at 4,345.1, while the Nasdaq Composite  added 4.84 points, or 0.03 percent, to reach 14,644.16.

Bonds yields were lower, despite the risk that higher oil prices could fuel inflation. The yield on 10-year Treasury US notes was down 5.9 basis points to 1.373 percent.

Oil prices were lower on profit-taking after having climbed to multi-year highs when OPEC+ producers clashed over plans to raise supply to meet rising global demand. 

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, known as OPEC+, abandoned talks after the United Arab Emirates rejected an eight-month extension to output curbs.

Some OPEC+ sources said there would be no output increase in August, while others said a new meeting would take place in coming days and would lead to a boost in August. 

Crude prices had earlier reached US$77.66 – the highest level since October 2018 – and US crude hit its highest since late 2014 at US$76.90 a barrel. Oil is up about 50 percent this year and over 385 percent since last year's COVID-driven slump.

Early Tuesday in the US, Brent crude was down US$1.30, or 1.68v, at US$75.86 a barrel. US crude was down US$0.53, or 0.71 percent, at US$74.63 per barrel.

"Without an injection of some extra barrels of oil in the coming weeks, given the tightness of the market, Brent might cross the USD 80/bbl threshold," UniCredit's analysts said.

Petrocurrencies – including Norway's crown , the Canadian dollar and Russia's rouble – all rose. The Australian and New Zealand dollars also climbed as the Aussie central bank pared back stimulus.

Tech troubles

Overnight in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.1 percent.

Japan's Nikkei finished up 0.2 percent but Australia's S&P ASX200 reversed following the RBA's decision to keep interest rates on hold.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region marked its sixth day of losses and Chinese mainland's CSI300 dipped to an almost two-month-low, after the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered an investigation into ride-hailing giant Didi.

The mainland will step up supervision of the firms listed offshore, and improve regulation of cross-border data flow and security, Xinhua quoted the cabinet as saying.

"There is still lingering uncertainty from China's tech companies and they are prominent in the Asian market," said Tai Hui, JPMorgan Asset Management's chief Asia market strategist.