Market ends week with long slide

A slide in trading late Friday piled more losses on the markets as investors began seeking the safety of cash or bonds ahead of the weekend.

During the day, the major indexes had fluctuated in a narrow range after Thursday's 419-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average.

There was little news to help investors determine their next moves. But some traders did not want to take the chance of holding stocks if one of their biggest concerns, the European debt situation, worsened over the weekend. "These things usually break out over the weekend and then you have a mad dash Monday to react to them," said Mike McGervey, the head of McGervey Wealth Management.

The drop late in the day recalled the 2008 financial crisis. Then, many investors stepped up their selling on Friday afternoons out of fears that another bank might fail over the weekend -- as Lehman Brothers did on Sunday, Sept. 15.

At the close, the Dow was down 172.9 points, or 1.6 percent, to 10,817.7. The Dow had been down 51 points at midday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 17.1 points, or 1.5 percent, to 1,123.5. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 38.6, or 1.6 percent, to 2,341.8.

The Dow's drop was due in part to Hewlett-Packard Co., which plunged 21 percent. The company said Thursday that it will close its mobile business, sell or spin off its PC business and pay $10 billion for a business software company.

The most notable economic news Friday came from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The bank joined other financial firms and cut its forecast for economic growth during the fourth quarter. It's now predicting growth of 1 percent, down from an earlier forecast of 2.5 percent.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.07 percent from late Thursday's 2.06 percent. It had been up to 2.11 percent earlier in the day. The yield fell below 2 percent Thursday for the first time as heavy demand for U.S. bonds sent prices sharply higher.

Gold rose as high as $1,881 an ounce, but closed around $1,847. Oil prices fell as traders feared a global slowdown that would cut demand for crude.

The Dow is down 13.6 percent since stocks began falling on July 21. That has drained billions from American's retirement savings and other investment accounts. And the stock market's drop can itself help move the country toward recession.