Wall Street ends worst week since Nov '08
US stocks closed out its worst week in more than two years on Friday in a volatile session that saw the major indexes whip back and forth before the S&P 500 settled with a slim loss.
More than 15.9 billion shares traded in the busiest day in more than a year as investors plowed into cash-rich mega-cap stocks that had been beaten down in recent days as the market dropped.
The intense selling this week reflects frustration with sluggish economic growth and politicians' inability to address pressing concerns over high public debt in Europe and the United States.
The S&P 500 is now down 12 percent from its April 29 closing high.
Markets have been looking to European officials for guidance as to how the region's debt crisis will be managed. Part of the loss of confidence stemmed from what investors called an inadequate response to the growing threat to large euro-zone economies Spain and Italy and banks' exposure to their troubled debt.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 60.93 points, or 0.54 percent, to end at 11,444.61. But the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.69 of a point, or 0.06 percent, at 1,199.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 23.98 points, or 0.94 percent, at 2,532.41.
European shares fell, and saw their biggest weekly decline in nearly three years, on worries about weak global growth and further contagion in the euro zone debt crisis, which threatens to engulf Italy and Spain.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares fell 1.7 percent to end the day provisionally at 976.10 points, the lowest close in 13 months. Over the week, the index fell 9.8 percent, the biggest weekly fall since October 2008.
Japanese stocks also tumbled to their lowest since the post-quake rout in March as investors ran for exits after the worsening financial crisis in Europe compounded anxiety over a weak US economy that has come close to stalling. The benchmark Nikkei average fell 3.7 percent to 9,305.04, while the broader Topix dropped 3.3 percent to 809.32.
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