Stocks Off Session Lows after Sentiment Data

U.S. stocks were off session lows in early trading on Friday, after Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Increased to 84.9 and wholesales and import data. The Dow Jones industrial average lately rose 6.53 points to 12,817.85. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up 3.46 points to 1,380.97 and the Nasdaq composite rose 12.14 points to 2,907.72.

The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters consumer-sentiment index rose to 84.9 in November – the highest reading since July 2007 — from a final October reading of 82.6, according to reports on the data released Friday.

Inventories at U.S. wholesalers rose 1.1% in September to a seasonally adjusted $494.15 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday. Sales for wholesalers climbed 2% last month to $413.97 billion. 

Import prices rose more than expected in October but price hikes for imported oil slowed, pointing to only modest inflation pressures. Import prices climbed 0.5 percent last month, the Labor Department said on Friday.

China’s economy strode further along the road of recovery from its slowest growth in three years, data for October showed on Friday, as infrastructure investment accelerated and output from the country’s factories ran at its fastest in five months.

J.C. Penney, which is in the early stages of a multiyear turnaround, reported a 26 percent decline in third-quarter sales at stores open at least a year, a steeper drop than the 17.9 percent that Wall Street analysts were expecting. Penney said its net loss had narrowed to $123 million, or 56 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Oct. 27 from $143 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier.

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