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By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Friday, capping a third straight week of losses for two major stock indexes, as concerns over debt-stretched European governments fueled volatility on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed DJIA -0.74% tumbled 93.28 points, or 0.7%, to 12,512.04, with a late-session skid causing the average to close near its session low.
All but two of the Dow’s components ended down, with a 2.5% loss in Alcoa, Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aa/quotes/nls/aa AA -2.46% and a 2% drop in J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm JPM -1.98% shares leading declines. For the week, the Dow lost 0.7%, its third drop in a row.
Stocks fell for a third consecutive week amid worries about the Greek debt situation and troubling profit reports from Gap and Aeropostale prompted concerns about consumer spending.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x SPX -0.77% shed 10.33 points, or 0.8%, to 1,333.27. A 1.5% drop in financial stocks led losses among all 10 industry groups. For the week, the index of large-cap U.S. stocks fell 0.3%, also its third consecutive loss.
The Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/comstock/10y!i:comp COMP -0.71% dropped 19.99 points, or 0.7%, to 2,803.32, down 0.9% from last Friday’s close.
For every two stocks that fell, one rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where 994 million shares traded hands.
The benchmark indexes opened lower and then intensified their losses after ratings company Fitch downgraded Greece. Read more about Greek downgrade.
Investors for much of the past week have grappled with news reports suggesting that Greek and Spanish government debt problems are far from resolution, and that European leaders are at odds on how to solve them. Read coverage from MarketWatch’s Madrid correspondent on worries Spanish elections will reveal higher debt levels.
“Headlines around the debate between Germany and the [European Central Bank] over a soft restructuring have only reminded investors that the risks surrounding European sovereign debt are still very real,” said Joseph Tanious, market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. Read how ECB officials are squaring off with finance ministers over restructuring Greek debt.
/conga/story/misc/investing.html 147435And, while first-quarter earnings were strong, the current dearth of corporate results has left investors with little else to fixate on other than economic data, which have been weak this week, the strategist said.
“We can debate the pace of economic growth, but the economy is healing, and as a result of that, we remain constructive,” Tanious said.
“The absence of significant corporate news has increased volatility in the short run, but we remain constructive on risk assets in the longer term, because of the attractive valuations and strong fundamentals.”
Earnings reports were the catalysts for several of the biggest market movers.
Gap Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!gps/quotes/nls/gps GPS -17.48% shares lost 17%, the worst drop on the S&P 500, after the apparel chain late Thursday slashed its full-year profit outlook by 22% as costs to make clothes climbed more rapidly than anticipated. Read more on Gap's lowered forecast.
But Salesforce.com /quotes/comstock/13*!crm/quotes/nls/crm CRM +7.95% shares surged 8% after the business software company surprised analysts with its results and outlook, helped by new customers for its cloud-based enterprise sostware services. Read more on Salesforce.com’s earnings.
Erasing losses, crude-oil futures /quotes/comstock/21n!f:cl\m11 CLM11 +1.07% gained $1.05 to $99.49 a barrel, and gold futures /quotes/comstock/21e!f:gc\m11 GCM11 0.00% ended up $16.50 at $1,508.90 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Read more on oil futures.
With shifting signals from economic data and companies putting the two-year rally in stocks on a more precarious footing, investors have been moving into more defensive sectors — health care, consumer staples and utilities — and selling former leaders, such as energy and materials.
On Friday, the only Dow gainers were Kraft Foods Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!kft/quotes/nls/kft KFT +0.69% and Walt Disney Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!dis/quotes/nls/dis DIS +0.29% Read more on investors finding a safe haven in Kraft, Pepsi.
“The best way to put it is there is no lack of uncertainty in the world out there today, and that’s the best way to describe it,” said Tanious of J.P. Morgan Funds. Read more on how uncertainty is driving investor choices in the stock market.
/quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed
/quotes/comstock/13*!aa/quotes/nls/aa /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x /quotes/comstock/10y!i:comp /quotes/comstock/13*!gps/quotes/nls/gps /quotes/comstock/13*!crm/quotes/nls/crm /quotes/comstock/21n!f:cl\m11 /quotes/comstock/21e!f:gc\m11 /quotes/comstock/13*!kft/quotes/nls/kft /quotes/comstock/13*!dis/quotes/nls/dis Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York. View the original article here
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