By Ovunc Kutlu
NEW YORK (AA) - The stock market opened lower Thursday.
The Dow fell 23 points to begin trading at 20,919 points, and the S&P 500 lost five points to stand at 2,394 points.
The Nasdaq decreased 18 points to start the day at 6,110 points.
the producer price index (PPI) rose 0.5 percent in April, from the previous month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced earlier Thursday. The index was expected to increase 0.2 percent on a monthly basis.
PPI also jumped 2.5 percent year-on-year, marking the biggest gain since February 2012, and higher than the market expectation of 2.2 percent.