S&P 500 Index opens little changed after mixed US data

• S&P 500 is posting small daily losses on Friday.
• Retail Sales in US rose less than expected in July.
• S&P 500 Real Estate Index trades in the positive territory.

Wall Street’s main indexes started the day little changed on Friday as investors assess the latest macroeconomic data releases from the US. As of writing, the S&P 500 was down 0.25% on the day at 3,364, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 0.45% at 27,767 and the Nasdaq Composite was falling 0.15% at 11,163.

Earlier in the day, the US Census Bureau’s monthly report revealed that Retail Sales in July rose by 1.2% to $536 billion and fell short of the market expectation of 1.9%. Other data from the US showed that Industrial Production expanded by 3% as expected and the Capacity Utilization improved from 68.5% to 70.6%.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the defensive Real Estate Index is posting small daily gains. On the other hand, the Consumer Discretionary Index is down 0.35% pressured by the less-than-expected increase in retail sales.

S&P 500 chart (daily)