Stocks opened higher Friday as investors took in the latest inflation update and the first round of fourth-quarter earnings. The enthusiasm faded into the long weekend, though, with the main indexes ending far from where they started.
Ahead of the open, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the December Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures what businesses are paying suppliers for goods, was down 0.1% on a month-to-month basis, and up 1.0% on an annual basis. The monthly figure matched what was seen in November, while the yearly number was greater than the 0.8% rise from the previous month.
