Stocks open lower as US budget deadline nears

Stocks are falling again on Wall Street as Washington leaders blame each other for an impasse over the budget that seems less and less likely to be resolved before a year-end deadline.

That's when a series of across-the-board government spending cuts and tax increases kick in, an event that has become known as the "fiscal cliff."

The market is on track for its fifth consecutive decline as the political gridlock continues and investors fret about the fallout it will have on the fragile economic recovery in the U.S.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 71 points to 13,024 shortly after the opening of trading Friday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell eight points to 1,409 and the Nasdaq composite fell 16 to 2,970.

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