Stocks slip, led by energy sector

NEW YORK – U.S. stocks edged lower Friday, cementing the Dow Jones industrial average’s third weekly loss this year.

Energy firms fell the most among the S&P 500 index’s 10 major sectors as oil slid below $107 a barrel.

The day’s modest loss, amid anemic volume, came after a week of milestones that pushed the benchmarks up to multiyear highs.

“Markets don’t move in a straight line, and obviously there’s a risk of a pullback here,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist at JPMorgan Funds.

Off 0.04 percent from the week-ago close, the Dow average fell 2.73 points, or 0.02 percent, to 12,977.57.

The S&P 500 shed 4.46 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,369.63. Energy firms were hardest-hit among the index’s 10 subsectors, a day after President Barack Obama called on Congress to end $4 billion in subsidies for oil and gasoline companies.

The Nasdaq composite declined 12.78 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,976.19, a level that has it 0.4 percent up from last Friday’s close.

Friday’s retreat follows a week when stocks touched some notable landmarks that highlighted how much equities had recovered over the past few months.

This week, the Dow average closed above 13,000 for the first time since 2008, and the Nasdaq composite crossed 3,000 for the first since late 2000. The S&P 500 ended February with its best two-month start to the year since 1987.

Strong oil prices were an increasing distraction.

After briefly rising above $110 a barrel in electronic trading late Thursday, crude-oil futures on Friday shed $2.14, or 2 percent, to settle at $106.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after Saudi Arabia denied a report on Iran’s state-run television of a pipeline explosion. Oil fell 2.8 percent for the week, its first weekly drop in four.