US stocks start day lower as Hurricane Irma barrels toward Florida

Major equity indexes in the U.S. opened lower on Friday as investors are worried about the negative financial impact of the Hurrican Irma, which is strengthening towards Florida.

In a recent article, "the last time a Category 5 hurricane ripped through Florida, it was so destructive that meteorologists retired its name forever. That storm, Hurricane Andrew, made landfall southwest of Miami in 1992, killing 65 people, destroying 63,000 homes and inflicting $26.5 billion in economic losses," the NY Times said.

In the meantime, today's data from the U.S. showed that wholesale inventories increased by 0.6% on a monthly basis in July after rising by 0.4% in June. The market was expecting the data to come in at 0.4%. Later in the day, consumer credit change for July will be released, which is expected to increase to $15.1 billion from $12.4 billion.

As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9.8 points, or 0.04%, at 21,775.60, the S&P 500 was losing 4.25 points, or 0.18%, at 2,461.88 and the Nasdaq Composite was falling 14.85 points, or 0.23%, to 6,383.20.