US Stocks Slide As Railroads, Oil Lose Ground

TIM PARADIS

NEW YORK (AP) — Investors dumped stocks and locked in profits Friday after the glow of a week full of strong earnings reports faded.

The retreat came as cautious forecasts from railroads caused unease about the U.S. economy and a rising dollar pushed prices of commodities lower, which hurt materials and energy stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 109 points to end the week with a modest loss.

Traders appeared eager to collect gains after earnings reports for the July-September quarter came in far stronger than forecast, pushing major stock indexes up more than 6 percent in three weeks.

"We've had such a great run that you're going to get people taking money off the table, especially at the end of the week," said Dr. Bob Froehlich, senior managing director, at Hartford Financial Services.

Analysts have been calling for stocks to take more breaks after a seven-month rally that raised questions about whether the market was getting ahead of itself. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 59.6 percent since March, though it's still down 31 percent from its peak two years ago.