NEW YORK — U.S. stocks ended with moderate losses Friday, hurt by worries about the global economic recovery as China made it harder to borrow and data showed sluggish European growth.
Helping the benchmark indexes off earlier lows, some technology bellwethers posted big gains, while data on U.S. retail sales were surprisingly strong.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which posted a 160-digit point decline at its morning low, ended down 45.05 points, or 0.4 percent, at 10,099.14.
Friday’s stock decline capped a week marked by volatile moves and a series of key announcements affecting every major economy in the world. But the big swings and headlines added up to relatively modest gains for investors — a sign that many key policy questions remain unanswered.
“I think the reaction here is about right. What we’re seeing is that the risks have shifted, but I don’t think the level of risk for investors has changed,” said Standard & Poor’s economist David Wyss.
“Our domestic economy (in the U.S.) is doing a little better than we thought it would; the international economy a little weaker,” he said.
The Dow’s slight loss on Friday left it with a gain of 0.9 percent for the week, thanks mostly to a big advance Thursday after the European Union made a general statement in support of heavily indebted Greece.
The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3 percent on Friday to 2,183.53, up 2 percent for the week. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3 percent Friday to 1075.51, up 0.9 percent on the week. All its sectors fell Friday except technology, which eked out a 0.1 percent gain.
The category’s best performer was Motorola Inc., up 7.5 percent after it said late Thursday that it plans to split itself into two companies.
JDS Uniphase rose 6.6 percent after it decided to buy the network-testing equipment business of Agilent Technologies.
Earlier in the session, the Dow tumbled as spooked investors fretted over an announcement by People’s Bank of China to raise the ratio of reserves banks must set aside by 0.5 percentage points, marking the second such action this year. The central bank has been tightening monetary policy in an attempt to restrain bank lending.
Meanwhile, data from the European Union’s statistics agency showed that combined gross domestic product among the 16 countries that use the euro rose by a weaker-than-expected 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter and was down 2.1 percent on a year-to- year basis. In the third quarter, GDP rose by 0.4 percent.
The fate of heavily indebted Greece has dominated traders’ attention throughout the week. Some participants looked ahead Friday to further details of a possible EU rescue effort that may emerge from two days of meetings by EU finance ministers slated to begin Monday, when U.S. markets will be closed for Presidents Day.
