US open: Stocks decline as investors digest data

US stocks were in the red on Friday as investors weighed a further slowdown in China’s economic growth and a worse-than-expected drop in US industrial production.

At 1502 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.06%, the S&P 500 shed 0.10% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.17%.

China’s gross domestic product rose 6.7% year-on-year in the first three months of the year, down from 6.8% growth the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The figure was in line with analysts’ estimates but marked the slowest quarterly growth for China since the height of the financial crisis in 2009.

Other Chinese data came in more positive. Retail sales jumped 10.3% in March, beating forecasts for a 10.2% increase. Industrial production climbed 6.8% in March compared to forecasts for a 6% gain.

In the US, industrial production fell more than expected in March, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. Production was down 0.6% from February, which was much steeper than the 0.1% dip forecast by economists.

Manufacturing output fell 0.3%, with the production of durables down 0.4%.

Other data from the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment eased in April. The preliminary estimate for the confidence index was 89.7 in April, down from 91.0 in March and worse than the 92.0 reading expected by analysts.

“With the job market very strong and stocks almost back to their highs, we see no reason for this decline in the index to become a sustained trend,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

The Empire State index for April rose to its highest level in more than a year to 9.56 compared to 0.62 a month earlier.

Meanwhile, oil prices extended losses amid reports the Iranian oil minister will not attend this Sunday’s summit in Qatar. Instead, Iran’s OPEC governor will be present at the meeting between global producers to discuss whether to freeze output.

West Texas Intermediate was down 3.4% to $40.13 a barrel while Brent crude was 3.3% lower at $42.41 a barrel.

On Thursday, the International Energy Agency said the global oil glut was set to ease by the end of this year. It also said that any potential agreement to freeze output at the Doha meeting would have only a limited impact on supplies.

“Overall there’s a slight negative bias but this could be no more than a touch of position-squaring after this week’s rally and ahead of the weekend,” said David Morrison, senior market strategist at SpreadCo.

“Investors are well aware of Sunday’s meeting in Doha between OPEC and non-OPEC producers to discuss a freeze on crude output. Equity movements have a strong positive correlation to the oil price so we may see some profit-taking now given uncertainty ahead of the meeting.”

In company news, Citigroup gained despite reporting a 27% drop in first quarter profit.

In comparison, JP Morgan Chase & Co. reported a 11% fall in the first quarter and Bank of America reported a 16% drop.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. fell after a report Thursday that the company may sell off part of its business.

In currencies, the dollar fell 0.18% against the pound, dropped 0.33% versus the euro and dipped 0.59% against the yen.