NEW YORK, July 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday, with the Dow dropped more than 150 points as investors were concerned over the escalation of trade tensions between Washington and other major economies.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 184.74 points, or 0.76 percent, to 24,086.67. The S&P 500 dropped 18.92 points, or 0.70 percent, to 2,699.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 65.65 points, or 0.87 percent, to 7,444.66.

Shares of Boeing and Caterpillar both fell at least 1 percent in early trading. The companies are sensitive to tensions since they do a lot of business overseas.

U.S. stocks posted weekly loss in the week ending June 29 as investors digested a batch of major economic data as well as recent corporate news.

For the past week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 lost 1.3 percent, and the Nasdaq declined 2.4 percent. For the first half of the year, the Dow was down 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 was up 1.7 percent, and the Nasdaq was up 8.8 percent.