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U.S. stocks fall amid data, oil prices

Xinhua, December 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks traded sharply lower Friday, as traders eyed data before the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting next week that is expected to raise interest rate for the first time in nine years.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 195.83 points, or 1.11 percent, to 17,378.92. The S&P 500 shed 23.95 points, or 1.17 percent, to 2,028.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 65.83 points, or 1.30 percent, to 4,979.34.

The U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand increased 0.3 percent in November, seasonally adjusted, the Labor Department reported Friday.

On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index fell 1.1 percent for the 12 months ended in November, the tenth consecutive 12-month decline.

Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November rose 0.2 percent from the previous month to 448.1 billion U.S. dollars, also below market expectations.

Total sales for the September 2015 through November 2015 period were up 1.7 percent from the same period a year ago.

Oil prices continued to hover near a seven-year low after the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last Friday to keep crude production pumping at the current level in an already oversupplied market.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery dropped 1.96 percent around midday Friday, and Brent crude for January delivery also lost 2.77 percent.

In corporate news, U.S. chemical giants DuPont and Dow Chemical on Friday announced a merge in an all-stock deal worth up to approximately 130 billion U.S. dollars.

The combined company will be named DowDuPont, with plans to pursue a separation into three spin-offs eventually. Endit