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September 17, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Consumer confidence fell in September even though consumer prices remained mostly flat in August, and that mixed data released Friday left stocks range-bound in typically lackluster trading for a summer Friday.
By the end of the trading day, stocks edged slightly higher, with the Dow Industrials ending up 13.02, or 0.12%, to close at 10,607.85. The Dow rose 1.39% for the week. The S&P 500 index gained 0.93, or 0.08%, to close at 1,125.59. The Nasdaq Composite, however, gained 12.36 on Friday, or 0.54%, to close at 2,315.61; the Nasdaq was up 3.26% for the week.
Disappointing economists’ expectations, the Thomson Reuters-University of Michigan consumer sentiment surveyworsened in early September to its weakest level in more than a year, as job and finance worries intensified. The overall index’s preliminary September reading was posted at 66.6, down from 68.9 in August.
Economists had expected the index would rise to 70.
In other consumer news, the U.S. Labor Department reported that the consumer price index (CPI)rose 0.3% in August, unchanged from July. Excluding the volatile energy and food component, the core index was flat in August–renewing concern that the U.S. economy is headed down a deflationary path. The core index rose 0.1% in July and 0.2% in June. Core inflation has stood at 0.9% for five consecutive months, its lowest level in more than 50 years.
