U.S. stocks slump on inflation, Greece concerns

U.S. stocks traded sharply lower in the morning session on Friday, as stronger U.S inflation data and Greece debt crisis spread jitters across the market.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 241.29 points, or 1.33 percent, to 17,864.48. The S&P 500 lost 20.65 points, or 0.98 percent, to 2,084.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index dived 69.93 points, or 1.40 percent, to 4,937.87.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Consumers increased 0.2 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday. The index for all items, less food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in March, the same increase as in January and February.

The CPI pointed to signs of some inflation that should keep the Federal Reserve on course to start raising interest rates this year.

Meanwhile, concern also mounted over the funding crisis in Greece as focus has been on Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis'visit to meet IMF officials.

U.S. stocks ended slightly lower Thursday, as investors weighed concerns about Greece against generally upbeat quarterly earnings reports.

In corporate news, General Electric announced Friday its first quarter operating earnings per share of 31 U.S. cents, down 6 percent from the first quarter of 2014.

Analysts said such financial results were mainly hurt by the strong dollar and also weighed by 16 billion U.S. dollars in charges tied to its divestment of GE Capital assets.

Shares of American Express dropped 4.71 percent around midday after posting worse-than-expected financial reports. The world's largest credit card issuer reported quarterly net income of 1.5 billion dollars. Results for the quarter were negatively affected by the significant impact of a stronger dollar on international operations. Endite