NEW YORK – Stocks were drifting lower Friday after the government reported the U.S. economy grew at a slower pace than economists had expected in the fourth quarter.
If prices don’t reverse, the Dow Jones industrial average will end the week down, the first time that’s happened in 2012. The Dow has risen for three weeks in a row and is up 4 percent this year.
The Dow fell 80 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,656 at noon. The SP 500 index fell 4 points to 1,314. The Nasdaq composite edged up 5 to 2,810.
The Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year. Economists had expected 3 percent growth.
Among stocks making big moves, Chevron Corp. fell 3 percent, the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow average, after the energy company’s fourth-quarter revenue and earnings per share came in
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