US stock market opens lower with weak data

NEW YORK (AA) - The stock market opened lower Friday with weak key data in the American economy.

The Dow Jones lost 36 points to begin the day at 18,577. The S&P 500 decreased four points to 2,181, while the Nasdaq started the day 10 points down to 5,218.

The Producer Price Index fell 0.4 percent in July, compared to the previous month, marking the fastest monthly decline since September 2015, according to the Department of Labor earlier Friday. The market expectation for the data was an increase of 0.1 percent.

In addition, retail sales for July remained unchanged from the previous month, against a market expectation of a 0.4 percent increase, according to the Department of Commerce.

Meanwhile, oil prices continued their increase Friday with hopes that OPEC and non-OPEC countries would strike a deal to curb their production levels at the end of next month in a meeting in Algeria.

At the first bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded at $43.89 a barrel with a 1.1 percent gain, and international benchmark Brent crude was up to $46.30 with a 0.8 percent increase.

After oil prices jumped more than four percent on Thursday, the three indexes in Wall Street finished at all-time record-high levels on the same day – a first since Dec. 31, 1999.