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U.S. stocks tumble on soft data

Xinhua, March 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks slid around midday Friday, with all three major indices dropping over 1 percent, as economic data came out negative.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 245.65 points, or 1.37 percent, to 17,649.57. The S&P 500 shed 22.99 points, or 1.11 percent, to 2,042.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 49.27 points, or 1.01 percent, to 4,844.02.

U.S. consumer sentiment decreased to a four-month low in March. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index fell from 95.4 in February to 91.2 in March, well below market consensus of 96.0.

Moreover, the Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.5 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, missing estimates of a 0.3-percent gain, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. Final demand prices moved down 0.8 percent in January and 0.2 percent in December.

Dampening investor sentiment, the U.S. dollar renewed its rally on Friday. The euro declined nearly 1 percent against the dollar around midday.

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 visiting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Endite