U.S. Stocks Open Lower as Oil Prices Skid and Economic Worries Grow

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Tuesday as economic worries continue and oil prices skid. Darden Restaurants say sales gained nearly 6% compared to last year, which was better than expected. General Mills (GIS) beat earnings expectations but sales fell short. Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein revealed that he has a 'highly curable' form of lymphoma. He doesn't expect chemotherapy treatments to disrupt his work schedule much. Meanwhile, COO Gary Cohn will take over some of Blankfein's duties. Volkswagen shares slid another 20% as the company said the software that allowed it to skirt U.S. EPA emissions standards is present in 11 million vehicles. The company's head of U.S. operations apologized and said the company will pay what they need to to settle the issue. Microsoft (MSFT) said it began the worldwide roll-out of Office 2016, the latest addition to its cloud-based subscription service Office 365. Microsoft said Office 2016 brings new versions of desktop apps for windows including Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Outlook.