(Updates close with volume figures and updated weekly closing
levels, adds byline)
By Jennifer Coogan
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 fell on Friday and
the Dow Jones industrials ended its worst week in nearly five
years as investors unloaded shares of financials, home builders
and other sectors at the center of the credit market crisis.
Last week's strong rally further unraveled on Friday and
risk aversion spread amid suspicions that banks have more to do
to clean up their balance sheets. The Nasdaq, despite being
down for the week, rose as investors snapped up the biggest
names in technology which have recently been hammered.
American Express Co <AXP.N> shares led declines on the Dow,
while Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> was one of the top drags on
the S&P 500. The S&P Financials <.GSPF> were the worst
performer of the 10 major industry groups, sliding 2.9
percent.
"There's risk aversion that's definitely not helping
things. People are wary of taking risk going into the weekend,"
said Justin Wiggs, a trader at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets
in Baltimore. "There selling in some of the large banks, some
of the consumer finance names."
Transportation stocks fell after oil futures jumped over 4
percent on growing tensions between the government of Venezuela
and Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> in a dispute that could disrupt
crude supplies from a leading oil exporter to the United
States.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 64.87
points, or 0.53 percent, at 12,182.13. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> was down 5.62 points, or 0.42 percent, at
1,331.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 11.82
points, or 0.52 percent, at 2,304.85.
Based on the latest closing levels, the Dow lost 4.4
percent for the week while the S&P fell 4.6 percent and the
Nasdaq ended 4.5 percent lower.
"A lot of people don't want to take a stand at this point,
there's a lot of passive order flow, not big bets being taken,"
Wiggs said.
American Express shares were down 3.2 percent at $44.98 and
Bank of America fell 2.8 percent to $42.16.
Home builders were sharply lower. Shares of D.R. Horton Inc
<DHI.N> fell 4.8 percent to $14.17 and Centex Corp <CTX.N>
stock fell 3.8 percent to $23.05.
The Dow Jones transportation average <.DJT> fell nearly 1
percent after crude oil futures settled $3.66 higher at $91.77
a barrel -- the biggest one-day gain in nearly two months.
Trucking company Expeditors International <EXPD.O> was down
5.2 percent to $43.60 and rival CH Robinson Worldwide Inc
<CHRW.O> shares 2.8 percent to $54.06. AMR Corp <AMR.N>, the
operator of American Airlines, lost 3.3 percent to $15.65.
Shares of Google Inc <GOOG.O>, Research in Motion Ltd
<RIMM.O>, and Apple Inc <AAPL.O>, all down about a third from
their 2007 highs, helped the Nasdaq fend off losses while the
other main indexes fell.
Google shares rose 2.3 percent to $516.69. RIM stock gained
5.7 percent to $89.83 and Apple stock rose 3.5 percent to
$125.48.
Amazon.com <AMZN.O> was another top gainer after it said on
Friday its board authorized the repurchase of up to $1 billion
of the company's common stock over the next two years.
Amazon shares rose 3.7 percent to $73.50.
Trading was very light on the New York Stock Exchange, with
about 1.45 billion shares changing hands, well below last
year's estimated daily average of 1.9 billion. On Nasdaq, about
2.27 billion shares traded, above last year's daily average of
2.17 billion.
(Reporting by Jennifer Coogan; editing by Gary Crosse)
(([email protected]; +1-646-223-6125; Reuters
Messaging: [email protected]))
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