Stocks Seeing Continued Weakness In Mid-Afternoon Trading

Equities experienced a considerable run up over the course of the past two months, prompting some traders to cash in their gains earlier this week. The move out of stocks has come as earnings season winds down and ahead of an expected lull in the summer months.Before the opening bell, traders digested data from the Labor Department that showed consumer prices were unchanged in April after edging down by an unrevised 0.1 percent in March. The lack of growth in consumer prices came in line with the economists’ expectations.The report also showed that the core consumer price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3 percent in April after rising 0.2 percent in each of the three previous months. Economists had expected core prices to edge up 0.1 percent.Separately, the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 67.9 in May compared to a reading of 65.1 for April. The index came in above analyst estimates of a reading of 67.0. Additional economic data came from the Federal Reserve, which released a report showing industrial production fell 0.5 percent in April, following a revised 1.7 percent decrease in March. Economists had been expecting production to fall 0.6 percent.