Wall Street lower as investors assess earnings, data

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - Wall Street was lower for a second day on Friday as investors assessed corporate earnings and data showed that U.S. inflation barely rose in March as consumer spending remains tepid.

Shares of Gilead Sciences fell 8.4 percent to $88.86 after a drop in quarterly profit, making it the biggest drag on the S&P and the Nasdaq.

Apple was down 1.5 percent at $93.38 a day after billionaire investor Carl Icahn told CNBC he no longer has a position in the company.

Adding to the day's selling pressure, inflation data clouded the path of future rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

The Commerce Department said the personal consumption expenditures price index, excluding the volatile food and energy components, edged up 0.1 percent last month after an upwardly revised 0.2 percent increase in February.

"Today's fall is just noise after the massive movement we've seen in the past few weeks," said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis.

"Today is a low volume day where we are seeing some consolidation."

At 11:03 a.m. ET (1503 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 125.4 points, or 0.7 percent, at 17,705.36, the S&P 500 was down 15.61 points, or 0.75 percent, at 2,060.2 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 42.75 points, or 0.89 percent, at 4,762.54.

Nine of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were lower with the health index's 1.69 percent fall leading the decliners.

Amazon jumped 11 percent to $663.85 after the company's quarterly results blew past analysts' expectations.

First-quarter earnings from S&P 500 components are expected to have fallen 5.7 percent from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Of the 311 companies that have reported, 57 percent reported revenue above analyst expectations, compared with the long-term average 60 percent.

The U.S. stock market is on its second-longest bull run. The S&P 500 has rallied 15 percent since February, helped by a recovery in oil prices and an accommodating Fed.

Oil, which briefly hit new highs earlier in the day, was poised for its biggest monthly gain in seven years due to a weak dollar.

The dollar index was down 0.8 percent at $93.04, its lowest level since August.

Chevron was down 0.9 percent at $101.46, while Exxon was up 0.5 percent at $88.42, after reporting results.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,713 to 1,100. On the Nasdaq, 1,657 issues fell and 911 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 2 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 27 new highs and 17 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian)