Daily Data Flow: U.S. Stocks Fall; Treasuries Still Popular; Euro Strength

U.S. Stocks Retreat Amid Concern on Fiscal Cliff Talks (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index poised for its second weekly gain, as investors weighed comments by lawmakers on federal budget talks and data showed consumer spending fell. “If you look at the net-net of all the noise surrounding the fiscal cliff, there’s very little impact in terms of meaningful actions,” Douglas Cote, chief market strategist at New York-based ING U.S. Investment Management, said. His firm oversees about $165 billion. “For the market, it’s creating intraday volatility.”

Despite Risks, Investors Just Can’t Quit U.S. Treasuries (CNBC)
Despite an array of reasons to avoid government debt, investors are continuing to pile into Treasuries — fiscal cliff or no fiscal cliff. “Just the general risk-on risk-off type of atmosphere — there’s so much uncertainty out there that it’s pretty difficult to try to guess what’s going to happen,” said Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed income analysis at Action Economics in San Francisco. “A lot of people are just parking their cash now into Treasuries.”

Euro Rises Versus Dollar, Heads for Fourth Straight Month of Gains (Reuters)
The euro rose to its highest level in more than five weeks against the dollar on Friday, heading for its fourth straight month of gains, as investors clung to hopes that U.S. politicians would reach a fiscal deal before the end of the year. The euro rose 0.2% to $1.2998, having earlier touched $1.3027 on Reuters data, its strongest level since Oct. 23. Traders reported offers at $1.3040-50.