NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks resumed their downward tilt in early trading Friday amid concerns over global growth prospects and an impetus to consolidate the equity gains of 2023 so far.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare pointed to weak industrial and service sector readings in several leading economies as leading to “some skittishness about global growth prospects.”

Major indices posted gains on Thursday after three straight gloomy sessions that investors said reflected the sense that markets were overbought.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6 percent at 33,731.09.

US stocks dip as market girds for pullback

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.8 percent 4,344.97, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 1.3 percent to 13,451.23.

But despite concerns, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday that she considers the odds of a recession “have gone down,” with the labor market remaining resilient and inflation easing.

Among individual companies, 3M shares rose 2.3 percent after it announced that it reached an agreement with plaintiffs’ attorneys to settle litigation over “forever chemicals” for between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion.

CarMax shares jumped 8.3 percent after reporting better-than-expected results.