Markets drop to conclude week

NEW YORK – U.S. stocks fell Friday as an unexpected contraction in a gauge of business activity in the Midwest had Wall Street cutting still-sizable quarterly and September gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.84 points, or 0.4 percent, at 13,437.13, leaving it up 10 percent for the year, 4.3 percent for the quarter and 2.7 percent for September.

The S&P 500 index lost 6.48 points, or 0.5 percent, at 1,440.67. The index had slid as low as 1,435.6, below the close on Sept. 12, the day before the Federal Reserve announced its third round of quantitative easing.

“We had a heck of a good quarter and month for stocks, beyond what anyone thought,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. “So now we’re having a step backward as some of the (Federal Reserve)-inspired gains dissipate.”

Friday’s session left the S&P up nearly 15 percent for the year to date, 5.8 percent for the quarter and 2.4 percent for the month.

The Nasdaq composite fell 20.37 points, or 0.7 percent, at 3,116.23, up almost 20 percent for the year, 6.2 percent for the quarter and 1.6 percent for the month.

Research In Motion Ltd. climbed 5 percent after the BlackBerry maker reported a smaller loss than analysts had projected.

Accenture PLC rallied a day after the consulting firm raised its yearly earnings outlook.

U.S. equities scaled back on Friday’s slide, which left all three indexes down for the week, after Spanish stress tests found the nation’s banks have a combined capital shortfall of $76.2 billion.

The gap, while “no picnic, is far better than the worst estimates and what the market feared,” said Keith Springer, president of Springer Financial Advisors in Sacramento, Calif.