Sluggish Dow Takes The Week Off

Stocks edged lower Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to its first five-session slide in nearly a year, as another dip in interest rates failed to inspire an inflationspooked market.

The Nasdaq market suffered the worst losses as investors continued to take profits on technology shares.

The Dow industrials fell for the fifth straight day, slipping 8.50 to 5,649.45, but the losing streak amounted to just 47.66 points, or less than 1 percent, punctuating the the indecisive mood in the market.

“The overall tone of the market remains toppy and tired,” said Brian Belski, technical analyst at Dain Bosworth in Minneapolis. “A lot of the leaders can’t get up any steam.”

It was the second straight session that stocks slipped against an improving bond market, where interest rates continued to back away from 13-month highs set earlier this week in the aftermath of Friday’s surprisingly strong employment report. The last time the Dow posted five straight losing sessions was last August.

“You’re seeing a bounce in the bond market because they were oversold. It’s a normal reactionary bounce,” said Belski. “But there’s a fair amount of inflation fear out there, and that’s why stocks aren’t reacting to this bounce in bonds.”

Much like the fairly tame inflation and retail sales reports released earlier this week, the latest indications on the economy provoked little reaction in Friday’s sluggish session.

After the reports, bonds recovered from an overnight slide, with the yield on the 30-year Treasury dipping toward 7.08 percent from this week’s high of 7.20 percent.

The financial markets have been handcuffed in recent months by indications of rising payroll and wage levels, which could translate into too much consumer demand, pushing up prices.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a margin of almost 4-to-3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 385.94 million shares as of 4 p.m., down slightly from Thursday’s pace.

The NYSE’s composite index fell for the seventh straight session, dipping 0.88 to 357.20, but the loss for that period has totaled just 6.18 points.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 2.07 to 665.85, its fifth straight losing session, and the American Stock Exchange’s market value index fell 2.88 to 593.85, its fourth straight losing session.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 12.47 to 1,213.18 as computer-related issues gave back more of their gains on Wednesday’s upbeat report on semiconductor orders.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.9 percent, Frankfurt’s DAX index fell 0.7 percent and London’s FT-SE 100 fell 0.2 percent.