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U.S. stocks retreat amid economic data

Xinhua, March 31, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks ended lower Friday after wavering in a tight range, as investors meditated on a batch of economic reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 65.27 points, or 0.31 percent, to 20,663.22. The S&P 500 dipped 5.34 points, or 0.23 percent, to 2,362.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 2.61 points, or 0.04 percent, to 5,911.74.

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.

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.

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.

Comments from Federal Reserve officials were also in focus. New York Fed President William Dudley reportedly said Friday that the Fed's forecast of two more interest rate hikes this year seems reasonable, though he cautioned that higher consumer and business confidence is not translating into hard data.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow rose 0.3 percent, and the broader S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.4 percent. Enditem