Investing.com – Wall Street opened lower on Friday in a day of thin trading before the start of the Christmas holiday weekend.
The S&P 500 fell one and a half points or 0.07% as of 10:22 AM ET (15:22 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased 14 points or 0.06% (14 0.06)and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was down 11 points or 0.16%.
Stocks were also held down by economic data showing that durable goods orders n November rose less than expected. However in more positive news, another report showed that consumer spending increased by 0.6% in November. Consumer spending is the single biggest source of U.S. economic growth, accounting for as much as two-thirds of economic activity.
Technology stocks lost the most in morning trading, with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) down 0.21%, Square Inc (NYSE:SQ) falling 2.22% and Overstockcom Inc (NASDAQ:OSTK) decreasing 8.38%. Shoemaker Nike (NYSE:NKE) fell 3.98% after reporting weak financial results. Meanwhile semiconductor Advanced Micronic Devices Ltd (BO:ADMD) was down 5.28% while Long Island Iced Tea Corp (NASDAQ:LTEA) slumped 16.35% after surging over 600% on Thursday when it renamed itself Long Blockchain.
Elsewhere Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) rose 0.28% while telecommunications firm AT&T (NYSE:T) increased 0.38% and Teva Pharma Industries Ltd ADR (NYSE:TEVA) was up 0.73%.
In Europe stocks are down after pro-independence parties gained a majority in the Catalonia elections. In Germany the DAX fell 30 points or 0.22% while France’s CAC 40 decreased 15 points or 0.29% and in London the FTSE 100 lost 16 points or 0.22%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was down 101 points or 0.99% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 slumped 13 points or 0.37%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.37% to $1,275.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.41% to 58.12 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied 0.19% to 93.01.