us stocks opened lower friday feeling pressure after the federal reserves preferred inflation measure showed prices increased more than expected in august the core personalconsumption price index which strips out food and energy costs rose 06 in august compared with a forecast for a 05 increase investors were also monitoring a speech by russian president vladimir putin who announced plans to annex large swaths of ukrainian territory the dow jones industrial average djia fell 84 points or 03 while the sp 500 spx was down 01 the nasdaq composite attempted to stabilize after a thursday plunge trading near unchanged