U.S. stocks end worst week of 2012 NEW YORK (Mar
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U.S. stocks end worst week of 2012
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks fell Friday, with the major indexes recording their worst week this year, after China reported its economy slowed more than anticipated.
“The market dropped because China’s economy is slowing down more than expected,” said Jim Sloan of Jim Sloan & Associates in Houston, Texas.
“Everybody’s worried and everybody’s unsure if the global economy can stand on its own, and China is a big part of global growth. If it slows too rapidly, that would create a lot of pain. I don’t think it will, but there’s uncertainty,” said Alan Skrainka, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth management LLC.
Still, “after an explosive 30% rise we were due” for a correction, said Skrainka of the market’s climb from its October lows.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -1.05% fell 136.99 points, or 1.1%, to close at 12,849.59, leaving it down 1.6% from the prior week, and its most substantial weekly hit since the middle of December.
Dow component J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM -3.64% reported a larger-than-expected profit in the first quarter. The first major U.S. bank to report results for the quarter, its shares lost 3.6%. Read more on financial stocks.
The S&P 500 SPX -1.25% dropped 17.31 points, or 1.3%, to 1,370.26, off 2% from the week-ago close, with financial and technology faring the worst and utilities and consumer staples the best performers among its 10 industry groups.
Google Inc. GOOG -4.06% shares were among those hit, down 4.1%, as corporate-governance entities voiced concern about the most recent effort by the online search engine’s founders to retain control.
Google detailed Thursday a plan that allows it to issue new shares without diluting the voting power of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Read more on Google shares.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP -1.45% fell 44.22 points, or 1.5%, to 3,011.33, leaving it down 2.3% from last week’s close.
The indexes also fell last week, the first back-to-back weekly losses for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq of the year.
For every stock rising roughly three fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 771 million shares traded; composite volume came to 3.5 billion.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-sl...=afterbell
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