Weak economic data reveal the sluggish U.S. economic growth, a number of Wall Street financial institutions cut the expectations on the U.S. economic growth for the second quarter. U.S. stocks opened lower and moved higher, but did not maintain the gains, the three major stock indexes turned down by the market closing bell..
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 94.68, or 0.75%, to close at 12,479.12; the Nasdaq composite index lost 26.03, or 0.92%, to finish at 2,817.04 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index retreated 10.59, or 0.8%, to end at 1,313.59.
A number of Wall Street financial institutions cut the U.S. economic growth expectations for the second quarter. BofA Merrill Lynch lowered the previous 2.4% U.S. economic growth expectation for the second quarter to 1.9%; RDQ Economics cut the previous 2.75% expectation to 2.25%. CIBC Global market trimmed the previous 2.3% expectation to 2.0%; Macroeconomic Advisers cut the expectation from 2% to 1.8%.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the April business inventories rose 0.4% month on month; higher than the average economist expectation of 0.3%. March business inventories increased 0.3%.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced the U.S. producer price index (PPI) fell by 1% in May, the largest single-month decrease over the recent three years. According to the survey by Bloomberg, economists had averagely expected PPI would fall 0.6% in May. PPI slipped 0.2% in April.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the U.S. retail sales declined 0.2% month on month. Adjusted April figure was also a decrease of 0.2%. This is the first time the U.S. retail sales declined for two consecutive months over the recent two years.
U.S. stocks fell across the board; Basic Materials, Consumer Discretionay sectors led the losses.
Also read: Moody’s cut Spainish sovereign debt rating by three levels to Baa3.