S&P, Nasdaq open lower as personal income falls

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq opened lower Friday to kick off the last trading day of October weak as personal income in the US declined in September much larger than market estimate.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 77 points, or 0.5%, to 15,370 at 9.55 a.m. EDT, while Apple stock price plummeted 3.8% after its revenue came below market expectation after closing bell on Thursday.

At the opening bell on Friday, Microsoft surpassed Apple as the most valuable US company.

Facebook stock price was up 2% at the time, after on Thursday it renamed itself to Meta, which will unite Facebook's apps and technologies, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and its Oculus virtual reality division.

Canadian material science company Meta Materials saw its stock price jump more than 25% late Thursday after investors confused it with the renamed Facebook.

The blue-chip Dow Jones, on the other hand, was up 22 points, or 0.06%, to 35,755 at the time.

Personal income decreased 1% in September, from the previous month, much larger than the market expectation of a decline of 0.2%, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes was up 0.38% to 1.575% and the dollar index rose 0.47% to 93.78.

The VIX volatility index climbed 2.06% to 16.87.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $83.15 per barrel with a 0.6% loss and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 0.9% to $82.06.

Precious metals reversed course to dive to negative territory with gold losing 1.1% to $1,778 per ounce and silver decreasing 1% to $23.81.

After falling to as low as $58,000 on Wednesday, Bitcoin was trading around $61,200 for a 0.6% daily loss.