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U.S. stocks waver narrowly amid economic data

Xinhua, March 31, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks fluctuated between small gains and losses in the morning session Friday as investors meditated on a batch of economic reports.

By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 32.65 points, or 0.16 percent, to 20,695.84. The S&P 500 edged down 0.39 point, or 0.02 percent, to 2,367.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 6.58 points, or 0.11 percent, to 5,920.92.

U.S. personal income increased 57.7 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.4 percent in February, in line with market consensus, according to estimates released Friday by the Commerce Department.

In February, personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased 7.4 billion dollars, or 0.1 percent, slightly below market expectations of 0.2 percent.

In 2016, personal income increased 3.6 percent compared with an increase of 4.4 percent in 2015, while personal consumption expenditure increased 3.9 percent compared with an increase of 3.5 percent in 2015.

The PCE price index rose 2.1 percent year over year, while core PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 1.8 percent from last year.

"We expect Spending will rebound in the spring and the Fed will be vindicated. Still, they have taken a risk, at least in part because the trajectory of inflation, including core inflation, is upward," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Meanwhile, the final reading of the consumer sentiment for March came in at 96.9, missing market consensus of 97.6, said the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment on Friday.

On Thursday, U.S. stocks ended higher, with the Nasdaq setting a new closing record, as Wall Street digested the country's better-than-expected revised economic growth data. Enditem