U.S. stocks ended lower Friday, the last trading day of the month, as investors sifted through the newly-released economic data and quarterly earnings reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 57.12 points, or 0.32 percent, to 17,773.64. The S&P 500 lost 10.51 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,065.30. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 29.93 points, or 0.62 percent, to 4,775.36.

U.S. personal consumption expenditures increased 12.8 billion U. S. dollars or 0.1 percent in March, missing market estimates, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

In March, personal income increased 57.4 billion dollars, or 0. 4 percent, and disposable personal income increased 50.4 billion dollars, or 0.4 percent.

"There is over 735 billion USD in savings on the sideline as decent job and income growth continues to put money in consumers' pockets. It is staying in their pockets, however, as consumer spending grew at the slowest pace in a year," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial Friday.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, rose 3.15 percent to end at 15.70 on Friday.

In corporate news, shares of Chevron ticked down Friday after the U.S. energy giant delivered lackluster quarterly earnings.

Shares of e-commerce giant Amazon soared on Friday following the release of the company's much-better-than-expected quarterly results.

After Thursday's closing bell, Amazon reported earnings of 1.07 dollars per diluted share for the first quarter of 2016, on revenues of 29.1 billion dollars.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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