Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday, as a raft of mostly negative economic data weighed on upside momentum while financials lagged.
In what was the last day of the month and quarter, the Dow ended the session in negative territory and suffered its first monthly loss since October, after the latest batch of economic data revealed a slowdown in personal spending and consumer sentiment.
The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index slipped to 96.9 in March from an initial estimate of 97.6, which was well below economists’ forecast of an unchanged reading.
The Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.1% against expectations of a 0.2% increase.
Meanwhile, better than expected Chicago PMI data failed to lift sentiment, as Financials’ mostly banks, traded in negativity territory.
The Chicago purchasing managers’ index rose to 57.7 in March from 57.4 in February. A reading above 50 indicates economic expansion, whereas a reading below 50 indicates contraction.
In corporate news, shares of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) closed more than 11% higher, after the company posted quarterly results that beat wall street estimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.31% lower at 20,663. The S&P 500 lost 0.23% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.04% lower at 5911.74.
The three major indexes posted quarterly gains of at least 4.6%, as investors poured into the so-called ‘Trump trade’ based on the expectation that President Donald Trump will deliver on his pro-growth economic agenda, which includes tax reform, deregulation and infrastructure spending.
The top S&P 500 gainers included FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC) up 13.2%, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) up 3.6%, while Martin Marietta Materials Inc (NYSE:MLM) added 3.2%.
Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) down 3%, AutoNation Inc (NYSE:AN) down 2.8% and Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) slumped 2.5%, were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.