U.S. stocks fall ahead of holiday season

NEW YORK, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded slightly lower on Friday, as trade is expected to be lighter than usual while going into the Christmas holiday.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 42.27 points, or 0.17 percent, to 24,740.02. The S&P 500 lost 4.21 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,680.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 12.73 points, or 0.18 percent, to 6,952.63.

On the economic front, U.S. personal income in November increased 54.0 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.3 percent, lower than market consensus of 0.4 percent, according to the Commerce Department Friday.

In November, disposable personal income (DPI) increased 50.9 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.4 percent, and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased 87.1 billion dollars, or 0.6 percent.

U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in November increased 3.1 billion dollars or 1.3 percent to 241.2 billion dollars, missing market projection of a 2-percent gain, the Commerce Department announced in another report.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a 1.5-trillion-dollar tax cut bill into law, as well as a spending bill to keep the federal government running through Jan. 19, 2018.

At the signing ceremony, Trump called it "a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs," adding "corporations are literally going wild."

Some companies said they would spend the savings from lower corporate taxes on higher wages and new construction.

Investors were optimistic about this, as they bet that lower taxes would boost companies' earnings. Enditem