Washington - US stocks opened lower on
Friday, hit in part by poor economic news from China and with all
eyes on the initial public offering (IPO) of the British football
club Manchester United, slated to start trading during the morning.
Five minutes into trade the blue-chip
Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 66.52 points (0.51%) at 13
098.67.
The broader S&P 500-stock index
lost 6.98 (0.50%) to 1395.82, while the tech-rich Nasdaq fell 11.38
points (0.38%) to 3007.26.
The downturn was an ominous omen for
the debut of Britain's most successful football team on the New York
Stock Exchange.
The pricing for the much-awaited
initial public offering was cut to $14 on Thursday from the expected
$16-20 range, underscoring doubts about the team's profit-generating
potential, its management, and reflecting the worries over IPOs since
the flop of Facebook's May debut.
In China, meanwhile, exports and
imports slowed for the second consecutive month in July, official
data showed, highlighting worsening conditions in the world's
second-biggest economy.
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