- Black Friday to Avoid Red Ink; Greenback Gets the Blues
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- AIG, Ex-CEO Greenberg Reach Pact to Settle Disputes
- Bank of America CEO Search May Extend Into 2010
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- Fed to Counsel Moviegoers on How to Use Credit Cards
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Chinese Overcapacity is Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Trader Talk
- Black Friday: Bargain or Bust?
More Videos
Text Size 
Writer
Stocks ended lower Friday as a dismal jobs report capped a string of disappointing economic reports this week, which cast doubt on the recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 21.91, or 0.2 percent, to close at 9,487.37. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each lost 0.5 percent each.
All three major indexes finished lower for a second straight week. The Dow has lost 3.4 percent in the past two weeks, while the S&P and Nasdaq are down 4 percent.
The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, ticked higher, ending the week at 28.63.
Major U.S. Indexes |
| Last | Change | Today's % Change | 1 Week % Change | YTD % Change | |
| Dow | 9487.37 | -21.91 | -0.23% | -1.84% | 8.10% |
| NASDAQ | 2048.11 | -9.37 | -0.46% | -2.05% | 29.87% |
| S&P 500 | 1025.17 | -4.68 | -0.45% | -1.84% | 13.50% |
| Russell 2000 | 580.25 | -3.51 | -0.60% | -3.12% | 16.18% |
| CBOE VIX | 28.63 | 0.36 | 1.27% | 11.79% | -28.43% |
The market got another disappointing reading on manufacturing: Factory orders unexpectedly fell 0.8 percent in August. This came a day after the ISM reported its gauge of manufacturing pulled back last month.
But investors were more bothered by the September jobs report.
The Labor Department said the economy shed 263,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent. The unemployment rate was as expected but the payrolls drop was much higher than the 180,000 job loss economists surveyed by Reuters had expected.
Investors have grown increasingly wary of the recovery following several disappointing economic numbers recently. More than two-thirds of readers polled by CNBC.com had expected the jobs number to be worse than economists had predicted.
But economists said the market may have been overreacting.
"[E]conomic data rarely move in a consistent pattern ... we should not be surprised that there are bumps in the road," Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors wrote in a note to clients. "Unfortunately, investors want the latest data to always be better than the previous ones and that is unrealistic. Thus, they react wildly."
Naroff and other economists pointed out that a huge chunk of September's job losses came from the government and therefore, private-payroll losses weren't as bad as the headline number would make it seem.
"If, as I suspect, the October numbers turn out to be a lot better, we will all come back to the conclusion that the economy is moving out of the recession but the recovery is likely to be quite sluggish," Naroff said.
General Electric [FSLR
Loading...
()
] was the biggest percentage decliner on the Dow, off 3.8 percent, as the conglomerate continues talks with Comcast [CMCSA
Loading...
()
] about whether Comcast will buy a 51-percent stake in GE's NBC Universal unit, which is the parent of CNBC. GE CEO Jeff Immelt said the company is mulling a partnership or IPO for the unit. Comcast said it hopes to reach a deal in 2 to 3 weeks.
Recovery-sensitive tech and industrial stocks were also depressed today, with Cisco, HP, Boeing and Caterpillar rounding out the Dow's bottom five.
Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
] was among the few bright spots in tech today, up 2.2 percent after UBS upgraded its rating on the stock to "buy" from "neutral."
Shares of CIT Group [CIT
Loading...
()
] soared 10 percent following news that the commercial lender is launching a debt-exchange plan in hopes of avoiding a bankruptcy filing.
Wal-Mart [WMT
Loading...
()
] shares ticked higher after Chairman Rob Walton warned that the retailer would ride out what is expected to be a slow US recovery, while its Asian operations should do better.
First Solar [FSLR
Loading...
()
], which is replacing Wyeth in the S&P 500, advanced 4.3 percent. Wyeth is being bought by Pfizer [PFE
Loading...
()
].
Pepsi [PEP
Loading...
()
] rose 4.2 percent after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the stock.
Crude oil futures [US@CL.1
Loading...
()
], which have consistently tracked stock market movement, also tumbled after the US jobs report, ending the week at $69.95 a barrel. Gold closed out at $1,004.30 a troy ounce. And the dollar continued to retreat against major currencies.
Volume was average, with 1.4 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Decliners outpaced advancers, roughly 2 to 1.
The week had started out strong, fueled by a wave of M&A activity, and logged their best quarter in 11 years. But it was all downhill from there, with Dow 10,000 talk fading and the index ending below 9,500.
Nine out of 10 key S&P sectors finished lower, with consumer staples the only one finishing higher. The biggest decliners were industrials, materials and energy.
Next week, investors will be keeping an eye on the dollar for any insight on which way stocks are going. Plus, we'll get readings on the services sector, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, and reports from major retailers on September sales. And, earnings season unofficially kicks off with a report from Alcoa [AA
Loading...
()
] on Wednesday.
Next Week:
MONDAY: Supreme Court meets; ISM services index; Fed's Dudley speaks
TUESDAY: IMF meeting; Fed's Fisher, Hoenig speak; Earnings from Yum Brands
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage applications; weekly crude inventories; consumer credit; Earnings from Costco, Family Dollar, Alcoa
THURSDAY: Chain-store sales; foreclosure report; BOE, ECB rate decisions; weekly jobless claims; wholesale trade; Fed's Hoenig speaks; Earnings from Pepsi, Marriott, Chevron (interim)
FRIDAY: Market peak 2-year anniversary (Dow at 14,164.53); international trade
Send comments to .
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
- Eric Schmidt pledges to create a virtual copy of the Iraq National Museum at Google’s expense.
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- More shoppers than ever plan to comparison-shop this season. Who will benefit?
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- How can you get out of debt and back on the road to recovery? Follow these ten steps.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes