US open: Stocks trade lower following PCE reading

dl wall street wall st new york city new york stock exchange nyse dow jones nasdaq street sign nyc united states usa america pb — Sharecast / Alessandro D Andrea via Pixabay

Wall Street stocks traded lower early on Friday as traders digested a slew of data points ahead of the Christmas break.

As of 1445 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.51% at 32,860.25, while the S&P 500 fell back 0.49% to 3,803.48 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.85% firmer at 10,387.44.

The Dow opened 167.24 points weaker on Friday, extending losses recorded in the previous session after a raft of data replaced hopes of a pre-Christmas 'Santa rally' with renewed rate hike fears.

Market participants thumbed over several data points on Friday, with last month's personal consumption expenditure reading taking centre stage.

The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge revealed that Americans reined in their spending at the end of 2022 despite faster-than-expected growth in incomes. According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms personal incomes increased at a month-on-month pace of 0.4% - ahead of consensus of estimates for a reading of 0.2%.

At the core level, PCE prices were ahead by 4.7%, down from the 5.0% pace observed during the previous month. Personal spending, on the other hand, was up by just 0.1% shy of expectations for a print of 0.2%, but the previous month's increase was revised up by a tenth of a percentage point to 0.9%.

Elsewhere on the macro front, building permits fell from 1,512 in October to 1,351 in November, according to the Census Bureau, while durable goods orders fell by 2.1% month-on-month in November, the sharpest decrease since April 2020 and well above market forecasts for a decline of 0.6%.

Still to come, November new home sales figures and a final reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index were slated for release at 1500 GMT.

In the corporate space, Micron shares were in the red amid concerns regarding future demand for semiconductors, while Tesla shares also traded lower on fears of dwindling demand.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $38.31 1.40%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $116.71 0.80%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $152.19 0.23%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $111.24 0.12%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $0.00 0.00%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $527.09 -0.09%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $86.67 -0.29%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $177.03 -0.37%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $265.26 -0.38%