NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks opened mixed on Friday, as Wall Street digested the latest retail sales that came above market expectations.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 59.74 points, or 0.22 percent, to 27,242.19. The S&P 500 increased 3.44 points, or 0.11 percent, to 3,013.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 8.77 points, or 0.11 percent, to 8,185.70.
More than half of the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow traded higher around the opening bell, with shares of widely-watched trade bellwether Boeing up over 1 percent.
Nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded higher around market opening, with the materials sector up over 0.7 percent, leading the winners.
Shares of Apple fell over 1.3 percent, after Goldman Sachs slashed its price target for the stock to 165 U.S. dollars per share from 187 dollars apiece.
The bank also forecast 26 percent downside to the Apple shares, citing a "material negative impact" on earnings for the accounting method the company will use for an Apple product trial.
On the economic front, U.S. retail and food services sales for August rose 0.4 percent month over month to hit 526.1 billion dollars, 4.1 percent above the August 2018 level, the U.S. Census Bureau said Friday.
The gains were mainly boosted by higher spending on motor vehicles and parts, as well as building materials. Enditem
