NEW YORK (AA) - The stock market opened mixed Wednesday as the decline in oil prices were balanced with positive macroeconomic data.
The Dow decreased 28 points to open trading at 19,798.
The S&P added less than a point to begin the day at 2,268 and the Nasdaq rose six points to 5,545.
At the first bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 1.9 percent to trade at $51.46 a barrel. International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $54.55 per barrel -- a 1.8 percent decline.
Consumers' Price Index (CPI), which the Federal Reserve watches closely for its 2 percent inflation target, came in line with market expectations.
CPI rose 0.3 percent in December, from the previous month, and marking its fifth consecutive monthly increase. CPI jumped 2.1 percent year-over-year -- its highest increase since June 2014.