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U.S. stocks open lower as dollar rebounds

Xinhua, March 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday as Wall Street focused on U.S. dollars' renewed strengthening.

The dollar ticked up after trading mostly lower against other currencies on Thursday. In early New York trading, the euro declined to 1.0570 dollars from 1.0603 in the previous session, while the dollar bought 121.44 Japanese yen, higher than 121.36 of the previous session.

Investors also eyed Friday the preliminary reading of the University of Michigan' s consumer sentiment survey for March.

The Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.5 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. Final demand prices moved down 0.8 percent in January and 0.2 percent in December.

In Europe, Greece remained in the spotlight. The European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker said Friday in Brussels that he was not satisfied with the developments in recent weeks over Greece bailout talks when he welcomed the visiting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 93.25 points, or 0.52 percent, to 17,801.97. The S&P 500 shed 8.44 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,057.51. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 11.60 points, or 0.24 percent, to 4,881.69.

U.S. stocks ended in the green on Thursday after a sharp decline in the past two days, as disappointing monthly retail sales soothed investor anxieties over the rate hike.

Retail trade sales for February were down 0.6 percent from January, well below market expectations of a 0.3 -percent gain. Endite