US stocks down on mixed economic news
NEW YORK: US stocks fell slightly as trading opened on Friday, as investors digested data offering a mixed assessment of the strength of the world's largest economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average drifted down 14.99 points (0.12 percent) to 12,035.01 in the first five minutes of trading.
The broader S&P 500 dropped 1.46 points (0.11 percent) to 1,282.04, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 6.63 points (0.25 percent) to 2,680.12.
Orders for manufactured durable goods rose 1.9 percent in May, rebounding from a sharp decline in April, the Commerce Department said.
At the same time, the government revised its final figure for first-quarter economic growth to 1.9 percent, up from its earlier estimate of 1.8 percent.
Although the revision marked a slight increase, the growth rate confirmed a sharp deceleration of the world's largest economy from a 3.1 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.