Data released on Friday showed that the U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter of the year but despite the drop on Wall Street, indexes still posted gains for the month.
The report showed a contraction of 0.7 per cent annual rate in the quarter, sharply below the earlier 0.2 per cent estimate expected.
Transportation stocks posted severe losses with the Dow Jones transportation average falling 0.8 per cent, almost 10 per cent below the 2014 high and just off what would be considered a correction.
Consumer sentiment and reports of weaker factor activity in May pointed to a slow pace in the second quarter.
“We had some weak numbers but it’s the end of the month for trading of May which can sometimes cause a selloff. It’s also Friday and Greece worries are still in the marketplace,” said Peter Cardillo, chief Market Economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.
Concerns on Greece
In fact, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the risk of Greece dropping out of the euro zone and putting global stability at risk should not be trivialized.
Share prices on all indexes strongly voiced a concerned sentiment as the Dow Jones industrial average fell 115.44 points, down 0.64% to 18,010.68 and the S&P 500 lost 13.4 points 64% to 2,107.39. The Nasdaq Composite fell 27.96 points to 5,070.03, a drop of 55%.
The monthly numbers for the Dow were up by 1%, the S&P 500 did slightly better at 1.1% and the Nasdaq was down 0.4%.
The weekly numbers posted losses all around with the Dow down at 1.2%, the S&P 500 down 0.9% and the Nasdaq losing 0.4%