The Palm Beach Post

Stocks slide on news that U.S. GDP shrank

Drop of 0.7% in Q1 worse than U.S. government’s prediction of 0.2% gain.

- Associated Press

NEW YORK — Stocks sank Friday following news that the U.S. economy shrank in the first three months of the year.

The revised data showed that gross domestic product contracted 0.7 percent in the first quarter. That was worse than the government’s initial estimate of growth of 0.2 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 115.44 points, or 0.6 percent, to 18,010.68. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 13.40 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,107.39 and the Nasdaq composite lost 27.95 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,070.03.

All three indexes ended the week lower. It was the first weekly loss for the S&P 500 following three weeks of gains.

Investors had t wo other disappoint­ing pieces of economic news to work through. A Chicago manufactur­ing survey fell to 46.2, well below the 53 that economists were anticipati­ng, and a measure of consumer sentiment fell to a six-month low in May.

Along with the disappoint­ing economic data, investors continued to watch developmen­ts in Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said a deal with the country’s creditors could be ready by the weekend, but it appears other key officials are less confident.

“With it being a Friday and the uncertaint­y around the Greece situation and the disappoint­ing economic data, naturally investors are taking some of their positions off the table,” said JJ Kinahan, a strategist at TDAmeritra­de.

Christine Lagarde, the head of the Internatio­nal Monetary Fund, said a Greek exit from the euro remains a possibilit y, while German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also appeared cautious in comments following the end of a meeting of top finance officials in Berlin. Without a deal to receive its remaining bailout cash soon, Greece faces the grim possibilit­ies of defaulting on its debt or ditching the euro. Figures from the European Central Bank showing Greek bank deposits are at their lowest in more than a decade only added to the prevailing gloom.

In energy, the price of oil rose nearly 5 percent Friday on an increase in demand and a surprising­ly large decline in the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose $2.62 to close at $60.30 a barrel in New York. Oil finished the week up 1 percent.

U.S. government bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.12 percent.

The euro rose to $1.0984 to the dollar.

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