General Motors Co.’s stock slid 2.9% early Wednesday as the auto giant’s joint-venture in China booked more than $5 billion in impairment charges and write-downs in the face of competitive price wars in that market.

General Motors Co. will incur more than $5 billion in charges and writedowns tied to its troubled operations in China as the automaker tries to salvage its once-profitable business in the world’s largest car market.

General Motors (GM) is set to take a hit of more than $5 billion to fix up its joint venture business in China, the automaker said Wednesday.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of October than a month earlier. Continued strength there would raise optimism that the economy could remain out of a recession that many investors had earlier worried was inevitable.

Markets were slow to gain traction in either direction early Tuesday, a day after a surging technology sector boosted Wall Street to another record finish. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were essentially unchanged before the bell.