NEW YORK — The stock market slipped in early trading with the path to a U.S. budget resolution growing more convoluted by the day.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 74 points to 15,253 shortly after the market opened Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost eight points to 1,690. The Nasdaq composite fell 21 points to 3,766.
A budget fight on Capitol Hill overshadowed a government report showing that income for Americans grew at its fastest pace in six months.
Rising income also helped lift consumer spending last month. That is crucial because that spending drives about 70 percent of all U.S. economic activity.
J.C. Penney fell $1.07, or 10 percent, to $9.35 following news the struggling retailer expects to raise about $811 million through a stock offering.