New York - XINHUA
US stocks traded lower Friday, the last trading day of the month, as investors assessed the newly-released economic data and quarterly earnings reports.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 144.12 points, or 0.81 percent, to 17,686.64. The S&P 500 lost 18.62 points, or 0.90 percent, to 2,057.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 50.42 points, or 1.05 percent, to 4,754.88.
U.S. personal consumption expenditures increased 12.8 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.1 percent, in March, missing market estimates, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
In March, personal income increased 57.4 billion dollars, or 0.4 percent, and disposable personal income rose 50.4 billion dollars, or 0.4 percent.
In corporate news, shares of Chevron fell more than 1 percent in the midday trading Friday after the U.S. energy giant delivered lackluster quarterly earnings.
Shares of e-commerce giant Amazon soared in the morning session Friday following the release of the company's much-better-than-expected quarterly results.
After Thursday's closing bell, Amazon reported earnings of 1.07 dollars per diluted share for the first quarter of 2016, on revenues of 29.1 billion dollars.