NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged lower on Wall Street on Friday after data showing the U.S. economy grew at its weakest pace in three years in the first quarter gave traders a reason to cash recent gains.
Major indexes closed up for April, however, with the Nasdaq up for six consecutive months, the longest streak in nearly four years.Gross domestic product grew at a 0.7 percent annual rate, below the 1.2 percent rise estimated by economists, as consumer spending barely increased and businesses invested less in inventories. The economy grew at a 2.1 percent pace in the fourth quarter."GDP was a little bit light and that may be the cause of some weakness today," said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas.Citi Research's gauge on U.S. economic data surprises <.cesiusd> turned negative for the first time since November.The soft growth data is bad news for the Trump administration after campaign promises to significantly boost growth and adds to concerns among some in the market that lower taxes, deregulation and increased government spending - the main reasons for a post-election rally - will be, at the least, delayed."We saw the rally fade quite a bit into the last part of the first quarter," said Bradshaw. "I think you're going to have to see some (legislation) within the next couple of months, otherwise the market will become disenchanted. So far it's been all talk, no show."The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.dji> fell 40.82 points, or 0.19 percent, to close at 20,940.51, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 4.57 points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,384.2 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 1.33 points, or 0.02 percent, to 6,047.61.For the week, the Dow rose 1.9 percent, the S&P gained 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq rose 2.3 percent. During April, the Dow gained 1.3 percent, the S&P rose 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 2.3 percent.The Nasdaq was buoyed Friday by gains in Amazon and Google's parent Alphabet. Amazon