NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks declined early Friday on discouraging corporate news and a weak dollar ahead of a key measure of consumer confidence due out shortly.

At around 9:35 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq composite (down 14.72 to 1384.83, Charts), Dow Jones industrial average (down 70.55 to 8467.85, Charts) and Standard & Poor's 500 index (down 7.23 to 894.35, Charts) all declined modestly.

The University of Michigan's preliminary reading on consumer confidence in December is expected to have risen to 85 from 84.2 in November. The report is due at approximately 9:45 a.m. ET.

Dow component Coca-Cola (KO: down $1.27 to $44.60, Research, Estimates) reaffirmed its outlook for fiscal 2002 and 2003, but also said it no longer will provide revenue and earnings forecasts in the future. Shares of the stock tumbled in early trade.

J.P. Morgan began coverage of both Intel (INTC: down $0.39 to $17.80, Research, Estimates) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: down $0.30 to $7.45, Research, Estimates) with a "neutral" rating, within a largely negative note on the semiconductor sector. The firm said that the top three markets within chips should remain depressed through the first quarter of 2003.

Also impacting sentiment was news that U.S. producer prices dropped unexpectedly in November, the government said, hitting a six-month low, due largely to declines in energy prices and passenger cars. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were expecting PPI to be unchanged from the previous month.

But on the upside, business inventories were 0.2 percent higher in October, in line with estimates.

The dollar continued to slide versus the Japanese yen and the euro early Friday. Brent oil futures rose 22 cents to $26.51 a barrel in London. Gold also headed higher after rallying more than $6 on Thursday.

Stocks in Europe fell at midday, while Asia stocks closed lower as Tokyo hit its longest losing streak in more than two years.

Treasury prices were little changed, with the yield on the 10-year note at about 4.02 percent.