Indexes down for the week
The stock market completed a four-day losing streak Friday with its biggest drop of the week. Disappointing quarterly results and outlooks from several companies pulled the major indexes sharply lower. New signs pointing to a slowing China economy added to investors' jitters, bringing down the price of oil and other commodities.
The stock market completed a four-day losing streak Friday with its biggest drop of the week.
Disappointing quarterly results and outlooks from several companies pulled the major indexes sharply lower. New signs pointing to a slowing China economy added to investors' jitters, bringing down the price of oil and other commodities.
"The revenue numbers have been very shaky," said JJ Kinahan, TD Ameritrade's chief strategist. "After next week, we'll have a much better picture overall how the earnings season was. But right now, that's the theme that I'm seeing, and it's not a healthy one."
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 163.39 points, or 0.9 percent, to close at 17,568.53. The Nasdaq composite lost 57.78 points, or 1.1 percent, to 5,088.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 22.50 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,079.65.
In energy trading, the price of oil continued to slide as the number of rigs drilling in the United States rose. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 31 cents, to $48.14 a barrel, in New York. Brent crude fell 65 cents to close at $54.62 a barrel in London.
Metals futures closed broadly lower. Gold lost $8.60 to $1,085.50 an ounce, silver gave up 21 cents to finish at $14.48 an ounce, and copper edged down less than a penny to $2.38 a pound.