NEW YORK (
) -- Stocks finished Friday's volatile session mixed as the major U.S. equity indices were once again whipsawed by global economic concerns amid some positive signs for the eurozone debt situation.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
, which ranged more than 400 points for the session, was able to close with a modest gain, but the
S&P 500
settled marginally lower and the
Nasdaq
lost nearly 1%.
An early afternoon rally on reports that the European Central Bank is willing to step in and buy Italian and Spanish bonds briefly had all three indices in positive territory, sending the Dow more than 170 points higher at one point. Italy also agreed to enact austerity measures on Friday, giving investors some hope that officials are on track to contain a potential debt contagion in Europe.
When the closing bell sounded, the Dow was up 61 points, or 0.5%, at 11,445, bouncing more than 200 points off a session low of 11,139. The
S&P 500
finished less than a point lower at 1199, bouncing off a low of 1168. The Nasdaq slipped 24 points, or 0.9%, to 2532, but it did climb considerably from its low of 2465.
The weekly performance numbers are ugly with the Dow down 5.8%, the S&P 500 off 7.2%, and the Nasdaq dropping 8.1%.
European markets had already closed by the time the reports surfaced of the potential bond-buying by the ECB and Italy's decision to move quickly on reform so the action across the pond didn't reflect the ensuing optimism. The FTSE in London dropped 2.7% and the DAX in Frankfurt declined 2.8%.
Earlier, Asian markets sank in response to spiraling fears of stagnant global economic growth. Hong Kong's Hang Seng sunk 4.3% and Japan's Nikkei lost 3.7%.
Before U.S. stocks opened,
futures gave a short lived cheer to the government's latest update on unemployment for July. The economy 117,000 jobs, , exceeding the growth of 84,000 that economists had been expecting. Another upside was that June's payroll additions were upwardly revised to 46,000 from 18,000. The unemployment rate fell to 9.1%, from 9.2% in July but economists think that the slight drop might be because some Americans got discouraged and stop searching for jobs.
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LPL Financial Economist John Canally said that the better-than-expected July jobs growth helped alleviate fears for a double-dip recession, but the lack of a unified response from Europe continued to make investors nervous on Friday.
"In Europe, there's been a real scattershot response to the debt crisis. These problems aren't new but there hasn't been a coordinated response -- and there really can't be because there's a central bank but then there's nearly 20 different governments going in their own directions."
"There are no silver bullets and very few viable options to fix the problem. Investors see that and I think they feel that they're very much on their own here," he said, adding, "This week, I think you saw a desperate cry from the market to policymakers, and policymakers simply not answering that cry."
Consumer staples and conglomerates were putting in the strongest performance with
Kraft Foods
(KFT)
,
Procter & Gamble
(PG) - Get Report
,
Johnson & Johsnon
(JNJ) - Get Report
and
Caterpillar
(CAT) - Get Report
settling near the top of the Dow.
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Report
was also among the Dow's best performers.
Earlier, Procter & Gamble topped analysts' quarterly profit expectations by 2 cents with earnings of 84 cents a share. Sales of $20.86 billion also surpassed projections for quarterly revenue of $20.6 billion but the
company guided for first-quarter earnings that were below consensus estimates at a range of $1 to $1.04 a share. The stock gained 1.6% to $60.56.
Technology and basic materials sectors showed the biggest declines.
Home Depot
(HD) - Get Report
,
Travelers
(TRV) - Get Report
,
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
and
Alcoa
(AA) - Get Report
were among the Dow's biggest laggards although
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
was the worst performer. Bank of America,
Comerica
(CMA) - Get Report
and the
whole banking sector were downgraded by
Wells Fargo
on Friday on the weaker economic outlook and sustained low interest rate environment.
Market breadth was still negative with 63% of the 8.6 billion shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange falling and 35% rising. Some 3.7 billion stocks changed hands on the Nasdaq.
Gold prices retreated as fears faded slightly. Gold for December delivery lost $7.20, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,651.80 an ounce. The September crude oil contract gained 25 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $86.88 a barrel.
The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index down by 1.1%.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury fell 1 7/32, lifting the yield to 2.536%.
.
In corporate news, media giant
Viacom
(VIA) - Get Report
reported
better-than-expected third-quarter results with adjusted earnings of 99 cents a share on revenue of $3.77 billion. Analysts had been anticipating a profit of 86 cents a share on revenue of $3.52 billion. Shares finished up 1.4% to $52.09.
Insurer
AIG
(AIG) - Get Report
swung to a profit in the second-quarter, reporting earnings of 69 cents a share. Wall Street had been calling for a profit of 92 cents a share. The stock lost 4.9% to $25.10.
Shares of
Priceline.com
(PCLN)
surged 9% to $527.81 after the
online travel company exceeded second-quarter expectations on 7% sales growth across its airline ticketing business and strength in its hotel and car rental bookings.
(LNKD)
saw its stock jump early in the session after the
business social networking company reported a surprise profit in its first quarter as a public company late Thursday. The stock dropped more than 4% to $91.36.
In other economic news, the Federal Reserve Board said consumer credit saw its biggest increase in nearly 4 years in June, jumping to $15.5 billion from $5.1 billion in May. Economists had expected consumer credit to fall to $5 billion in June, according to Briefing.com. The report is considered a gauge of future spending.
-- Written by Chao Deng and Melinda Peer in New York
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