Stocks Opened Slightly Lower

U.S. stocks opened slightly lower on Friday as investors remained cautious ahead of the looming vote in the U.K. on whether or not to remain in the European Union. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately slipped 49.44 points, or 0.28%, to 17,683.66. The S&P 500 was off 6.06 points, or 0.29%, to 2,071.93. The Nasdaq Composite was down 27.64 points, or 0.57%, to 4,817.28.

New-home construction in the U.S. was little changed in May, a sign the residential real-estate industry will add little to economic growth in the second quarter. Housing starts in May fell 0.3 percent to a 1.16 million annualized rate from a 1.17 million pace the prior month, a Commerce Department report showed Friday in Washington.

A unit of HSBC Holdings Plc said on Thursday it will pay $1.575 billion (1.11 billion pounds) to end a 14-year-old shareholder class action lawsuit stemming from the Household International consumer finance business that the British bank bought in 2003.

Beijing’s intellectual property regulator has ordered Apple Inc. AAPL, -1.52% to stop sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the city, ruling that the design is too similar to a Chinese phone, in another setback for the company in a key overseas market.

Crude oil prices rose on Friday for the first time in seven days. Brent crude futures were up $1.11 at $48.30 a barrel by 1142 GMT, having dropped 3.6 percent in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 81 cents to $47.02 after falling by 3.8 percent in the previous session.

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