Stocks Pare Losses, Finish Down

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks pared losses late but finished in the red Friday, after spending much of the day pressured by tech, energy and a strong dollar.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10,318. The S&P 500 declined 3.5 points, or 0.3%, to 1091, as the Nasdaq fell 11 points, or 0.5%, to 2146.

By bouncing off session lows today, the Dow hung on to its gains for the week, adding 0.5%. The S&P and the Nasdaq fell 0.2% and 1%, respectively.

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Earlier in the session, Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist for LPL Financial, posited that signs for the week ahead may be found in the late-session movements.

"This is probably the last day of decent trading volume ahead of next week, which will be really light," says Kleintop. "So, it'll be interesting to see where we end up today -- if we hang around these levels or if we fall off into the close. That might be an indicator of what could happen next week with much lighter volumes on the Street with folks on vacation."

Stocks plunged on Thursday after a mix of economic reports left investors antsy about the economic recovery, and slumping chipmaker stocks received an analyst downgrade, weighing on the major indices.

But with no major economic reports on tap to end the week, many investors took their cue from Dell's(DELL)underwhelming quarterly results after Thursday's closing bell, which cast a pall over the tech sector for much of the day.