On Friday U.S.
stock indexes opened slightly higher before declining after downbeat U.S. data.
The Dow Jones industrial average was last down 0.14%, while Nasdaq dipped 0.09% and S&P 500 was 0.24% lower.
In the U.S., a fresh report signaled U.S. consumer spending in September had its smallest gain in eight months as personal income hardly rose, suggesting some cooling in domestic demand after recent weighty increases.
The
Commerce Department data and another report from the Labor Department
on Friday also showed weak inflationary pressures, which would argue
against the Federal Reserve raising interest rates at the end of the
year.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, edged up 0.1 percent last month after rising 0.4 percent rise in August. September's consumer spending data was included in Thursday's third-quarter gross domestic product report.
Consumer spending climbed at a brisk 3.2 percent annual pace in the third quarter, helping to lift GDP growth to a 1.5 percent rate. Spending has increased at a rate of more than 3 percent in each of the last two quarters.
Personal income added 0.1 percent in
September, the smallest rise since March, after rising 0.4 percent
in the prior month. Inflation remained soft last month as spending was weak.
A price index for
consumer spending slipped 0.1 percent, the first drop since January,
after being flat in August. In the 12 months through September, the
personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index added 0.2 percent,
the smallest rise since April. It climbed 0.3 percent in August.
Excluding food and energy, prices rose 0.1 percent for a fifth straight month. The so-called core PCE price index rose 1.3 percent in the 12 months through September after a similar gain in August.
Inflation has stayed below the Fed's 2 percent goal.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed the Employment Cost Index, the broadest measure of labor costs, increased 0.6 percent after a 0.2 percent gain in the second quarter.
In the 12 months through September, labor costs held steady at 2.0 percent, below the 3 percent threshold that economists say is needed to bring inflation closer to the Fed's target.
The dollar declined after the data with EUR/USD last trading at 1.1054, up 0.71%, while GBP/USD advanced 0.39% to trade at 1.5371.
