The three major indexes on the New York stock market opened lower across the board. This reflected reports of clashes between the United States and Iran, a rise in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index hitting a record high for the first time in about three years, and a downward revision to first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
At 9:53 a.m. on the 28th (local time) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 83.31 points, or 0.16%, to 50,560.97. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index dropped 6.00 points, or 0.08%, to 7,514.36. The Nasdaq composite fell 49.15 points, or 0.18%, to 26,625.58.
This appears to reflect weakened investor sentiment as the United States and Iran launched tit-for-tat strikes ahead of agreeing on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end the war. The United States said that it shot down Iran's explosive drones that threatened merchant ships and U.S. troops in the port city of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz and carried out airstrikes on an Iranian military ground control station. Afterward, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it struck back on the grounds that the United States violated the truce and attacked a U.S. Air Force base.
Also released that day were the April PCE and the first-quarter GDP. The core PCE price index, excluding food and energy, rose 0.2% in April from the previous month. That is 0.1 percentage point lower than March's month-over-month increase of 0.3%. The headline PCE price index rose 0.4% from the previous month, below the market forecast of 0.5%.
The revised first-quarter GDP, seasonally adjusted at an annual rate from the previous quarter, increased 1.6%. That is 0.4 percentage point lower than the market forecast of 2.0%.
Meanwhile, European stocks also fell. The Euro Stoxx 50 index was trading at 6,029.29, down 0.68% from the previous session. France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX fell 0.63% and 0.75%, respectively. Britain's FTSE 100 also fell 0.96%.