US open: Stocks head south in early trading

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Friday but both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were still tracking towards a winning week. As of 1515 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.75% at 38,356.30, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.41% to 5,411.29 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.08% weaker at 17,653.61.

The Dow opened 290.80 points lower on Friday, extending losses recorded in the previous session after wholesale inflation unexpectedly dropped 0.2% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reading followed a flat month-on-month print in May.

On the macro front for Friday, the cost of goods produced overseas by the US declined unexpectedly in May, according to the Department of Labor, which said the country's import price index fell at a month-on-month pace of 0.4% (consensus: +0.1%). In year-on-year terms, import prices were ahead by 1.1%. Export prices fell by 0.6% on the back of a 0.8% decline in non-agricultural goods. Agricultural exports, on the other hand, experienced a gain of 0.5%.

Elsewhere, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment fell for a third straight month to 65.6 in June, the lowest since November, down from 69.1 in May and well below forecasts for a reading of 72.

Still to come, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago president Austan Goolsbee will deliver a speech at 1900 BST.

In the corporate space, Adobe shares surged in early trading after the software giant beat Wall Street estimates with its Q2 earnings and hiked its full-year guidance, while Tesla shares traded higher after shareholders voted to approve chief executive Elon Musk's controversial $56.0bn pay packet.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com