Stock market down for fourth straight week

A growing belief that the country is headed toward recession gave the stock market its fourth straight week of losses.

The anxiety in the market was obvious Friday as the major indexes went from modest gains early in the day to another sharp loss. The Dow Jones industrial average had its 10th move of more than 100 points this month.

"We just don't know whether we're going to have a recession," said John Burke, head of Burke Financial Strategies.

Investors began the week on a more confident note after last week's volatility, the worst the market has had since the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow rose nearly 215 points Monday when Google, Time Warner Cable and Cargill were among companies announcing multibillion dollar deals. The market was relatively calm the next two days. But Thursday, a stream of bad economic news in the United States combined with worries about Europe's debt problems and sent the Dow down 419 points.

On Friday, there was little news to help guide investors. And some traders did not want to take the chance of holding stocks if bad news came out of Europe over the weekend. So they began selling during the afternoon. 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.

The Dow lost 172.93, or 1.57 percent, and closed at 10,817.65. It was down 4 percent for the week. Since July 21, right before the market began its plunge, the Dow is down 15 percent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index Friday fell 17.12, or 1.50 percent, to 1,123.53. The Nasdaq composite fell 38.59, or 1.62 percent, to 2,341.84.