Stocks fell again Friday after a sharp dive in the previous session, with investors anxious about a new oil price record but relieved about increases in personal incomes and spending.
The Commerce Department said spending rose 0.8 percent in May, as taxpayers started receiving their stimulus checks. The increase was higher than the 0.7 percent economists predicted. The report also said personal incomes surged 1.9 percent _ significantly more than anticipated. After taxes, incomes surged 5.7 percent, the largest amount in 33 years.
The data appeared to provide a bit of solace to investors nervous about consumers struggling with rising prices, falling home values and the shaky job market. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity.
But with many commodities on a seemingly unstoppable incline, Wall Street remains concerned that they will slam consumers with not only elevated costs for energy and food, but also for other goods if cash-strapped companies decide to pass along the rising costs. Early Friday, light, sweet crude was up more than $1 above $141 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after briefly surpassing $142 in pre-market trading.
Corn and soybean prices have also been hitting new all-time highs.
In the first hour of trading, the Dow fell 25.49, or 0.22 percent, to 11,427.93, sacrificing an advance in the first minutes of the session.
Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.34, or 0.10 percent, to 1,281.81, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 10.87, or 0.47 percent, to 2,310.50.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average gave up nearly 360 points and fell to its lowest level since September 2006 on a combination of worries about oil prices and the financial, automotive and technology sectors. General Motors Corp. shares dropped to their lowest level in more than three decades.
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