NEW YORK — U.S. stocks fell after spending Black Friday in the red as worries over the euro zone’s finances overshadowed positive readings on the start of the holiday shopping season.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 95.28 points, or 0.9 percent, to end at 11,092. JPMorgan Chase and American Express fell the hardest, with both stocks losing 1.7 percent.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3 percent to 2,534.56. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined 0.8 percent to 1,189.40.
The materials and energy sectors posted the biggest declines Friday as related commodities fell in a broad move away from risky assets.
The declines came as investors homed in on Spain as another weak spot in the euro zone. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero moved to dispel the growing anxiety, saying there was “absolutely” no chance the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy would seek a bailout from the European Union. But his attempt to calm the markets had little effect; the euro tumbled, and the selloff in Spanish and Portuguese sovereign bonds continued.
“Besides being one of the larger economies over there, it’s a renewal of contagion worries and . . . it just puts further stress on the EU,” said Bernie Williams, vice president of private investment management at USAA Investment Management.
European leaders sparred over whether to commit more funds to rescue struggling euro-zone countries, as financial-market pressure on the region’s weakest economies intensified. The European Union’s executive arm, the Brussels-based EU Commission, floated a proposal Wednesday to double the size of Europe’s 440 billion euro bailout fund for euro-zone governments, but the idea was dismissed by Germany, according to people familiar with the situation.
The uncertainty of the euro-zone debt situation prompted investors to pull out of riskier assets, sending crude-oil futures lower. Metals futures also fell, prompting gold to slip to $1,362.40 an ounce.
