Stocks Little Changed Amid Amazon-Whole Foods Shock -- US Commentary

(RTTNews) - Stocks were mixed Friday amid another round of downbeat economic data and news that online giant Amazon snapped up Whole Foods.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 24.52 points, or 0.1%, at 21,384.42, the S&P 500 index finished up 0.68 points at 2,433.14, and the Nasdaq lost 13 points to 6,151.

For the week, Dow was up 0.5%, the S&P 500 up less than 0.1%, and Nasdaq down 0.9%, the second straight weekly loss.

Traders were unfazed by the release of a government report showing a steep drop in housing starts for May. The U.S. Commerce Department said housing starts slumped by 5.5 percent to an annual rate of 1.092 million in May from the revised April estimate of 1.156 million.

The significant decline surprised economists, who had expected housing starts to climb to a rate of 1.215 million from the 1.172 million originally reported for the previous month.

There was also a decline in building permits, a measure of future building activity. That figure tumbled by 4.9 percent to a rate of 1.168 million in May from a revised 1.228 million in April.

Meanwhile, a second economic report indicated weak consumer attitudes, a bad sign for retail spending. The University of Michigan said its preliminary consumer sentiment for June fell to 94.5. The consumer sentiment index is expected to be unchanged at 97.1. The figure was the weakest since last November.

Amazon (AMZN) Friday said it has agreed to buy grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) for $13.4 billion, as the online retailing giant aims to dominate supermarket industry as well. Amazon shares jumped 2.3 percent, while Whole Foods surged up 30 percent.

Walmart (WMT) announced an agreement to acquire Bonobos, Inc., one of the leading apparel brands built on the internet, for $310 million in cash. Walmart was flat.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) said it has made a final investment decision to proceed with the first phase of development for the Liza field, one of the largest oil discoveries of the past decade, located offshore Guyana.