Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — The U.S. stock market opened lower Friday after disappointing retail sales data and manufacturing data, which both point to the impact of inflation on consumers and industries. 

At 9:45 ET (1445 GMT), it was down 285 point, or 0.8% at 35,829, and was down 0.3% by 9.45 am GMT. Tech-heavy posted a 0.2% gain, beating expectations that any economic slowdown would decrease the Federal Reserve’s need to raise interest rates.

Official data earlier showed that retail sales dropped by 1.9% in December. This was their largest monthly decline since February. The figures were not perfect due to some circumstances. Shoppers who fear product shortages may have increased their purchase to October or November 2013 but the overall trend in consumer spending was still weak. 

Marc Ostwald (chief economist at ADM ISI London) warned that these figures are even more concerning when they don’t account for inflation.

Ostwald stated via Twitter that “it may be that rising costs are also taking their toll.”