Stocks Fall Into Puddle of Oil

"The reality is, expectations probably got out of line in April," said Jason Pride, director of research with Haverford Investments. "And now everybody that that hopped back in, thinking everything was okay, now they're backing off a little bit. It's this manic mood that the market seems to have. We go back and forth on it in dramatic swings when the reality is, not much has changed. It's only the perception that's different."

Specifically, Pride said it was "outrageous" that people began believing the Fed would actually hike interest rates soon. He predicted the economy will undergo an extended "soft" period that it will take awhile to surmount, though he also believes the likelihood of a dramatic recession is being "gradually stripped away."

Helping to drag on the market Friday were crude-oil futures, which turned higher again following yesterday's brief reprieve from a stunning upward climb over the past few weeks. Crude hit an intraday high near $134 a barrel earlier today, but later pared back its gains to $1.38 at $132.19. The national average for gas prices at the pump lifted to another record of $3.875 a gallon, according to AAA.

Gold futures added $7.50 to $925.80 an ounce. The U.S. dollar was back on a downward track, losing 0.5% against the euro to $1.5774 and fetching just 103.28 yen, a 1% tumble from the prior settlement.

On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors said April's existing-home sales fell 1% from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units -- a hair better than the economists' consensus, though also a 17.5% slide from a year earlier. Total inventory jumped 10.5% sequentially and it should take 11.2 months, a 23-year high, to work through that backlog at the current sales pace. That's up from a 10-month estimate in March.