New York - US stocks were mostly down Friday, the declines spurred by new government data that revealed consumers were saving money rather than spending.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader Standard and Poor's 500 slid, but the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was up for the day and week.

Friday's drop was linked to the highest US savings rate in 15 years, which has investors worried about sluggish consumer spending.

The US Commerce Department said Friday that personal income was up 1.4 per cent in May and spending increased 0.3 per cent, after falling 0.1 per cent in April.

However, personal savings rose to 6.9 per cent in May, the highest rate in more than 15 years, as consumers opted to save in order to ride out the ongoing recession.

"The magnitude of that savings rate may have gotten some folks by surprise," Philip Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors Inc in New York, told Bloomberg financial news.

Orlando said that economic and earnings growth were "potentially not going to be as robust as some were thinking. That's weighing on stocks."

The blue-chip Dow dropped 34.01 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 8,438.39. The S&P 500 shed 1.36 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 918.90. The Nasdaq rose 8.68 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 1,838.22.

The US currency fell against the euro to 71.14 euro cents from 71.47 euro cents on Thursday. It was also down against the Japanese currency to 95.18 yen from 95.89 yen.(dpa)