(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened lower on Friday for the last session before Christmas despite slowing inflation and household consumption data which confirmed the resilience of the U.S. economy, but not enough to dissuade the US Federal Reserve from continuing its monetary tightening to combat rising prices.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index lost 0.03%, or 8.56 points, to 33,036.05 points and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.06% to 3,824.79 points.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.12% to 10,463.294 points.
Household spending in the United States increased very slightly in November over one month, by 0.1% against +0.9% the previous month. In addition, the so-called PCE consumer price index, the measure of inflation favored by the American central bank, for its part slowed down to +0.2%, against +0.3% (revised) in October.
Stocks fell on Thursday after the release of indicators highlighting the strength of the U.S. economy and labor market, which some investors believe would give the Federal Reserve more leeway in tightening monetary policy, with the risk of a recession.
The benchmark S&P 500, which has fallen nearly 20% this year, is on course for its biggest annual decline since the 2008 financial crisis. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has lost about 33% this year and the Dow 9%.
Technology stocks therefore fell, being particularly sensitive to the anticipation of a rise in interest rates because their valuation is highly dependent on future profits.
Among stocks, Tesla thus lost 2.7% despite Elon Musk’s announcement that he would not sell any more shares in the automaker for about two years, and which was initially well received.
(Written by Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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