McDonald's, GE, Microsoft data sinks stocks
Trader William Sachs, right, check prices as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. A new sign of recovery in the housing market and strong corporate earnings sent stocks higher on Wednesday. (July 18, 2012) Credit: AP
Poor corporate earnings reports pounded the stock market Friday in a sour end to an otherwise strong week of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points for its worst day in four months.
Disappointing results from three giants of the Dow -- Microsoft, General Electric and McDonald's -- were to blame. But the broader market fell, too, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fared even worse in percentage terms.
The Dow sank 205.43 points to close at 13,343.51. The S&P lost 1.66 percent to 1,433.19. The Nasdaq composite index, hammered by a second ugly day for Google, declined 2.19 percent to 3,005.62.
The big drops Friday left the Dow and S&P clinging to gains for the week.
Financial analysts expect corporate earnings for July through September to be lower than the same period a year ago, which would be the first yearly decline in three years.
Through Thursday, with 115 companies in the S&P 500 reporting, earnings were down 3.7 percent compared with a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters, a financial data provider, and ING, a financial company. -- AP
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