US: Stocks little changed after Q4 growth downgrade

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks fell slightly in opening trade on Friday after a downward revision to fourth-quarter US economic growth came in less severe than expected.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 15.77 points (0.09 per cent) to 18,198.65.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.30 (0.01 per cent) at 2,110.44, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.40 (0.03 per cent) at 4,986.50.

The official estimate of growth in the October-December quarter was revised to 2.2 per cent from the initial estimate of 2.6 per cent. A sharper cut had been expected by markets.

After the third quarter's 5.0 per cent pace, "the trend is probably somewhere in the middle - at least 3 per cent," said Jim O'Sullivan at High Frequency Economics.

AFP