NEW YORK — U.S. stocks ended lower Friday, denting weekly gains, as credit-rating cuts for Italy and Spain offset a better-than-anticipated payrolls report, prompting caution before the weekend.
“The economic data stream this week has been almost entirely better than expected and almost entirely ignored. The good news is we again have not gone into a double-dip recession; the bad news is nobody seems to care right now with all of our focus on Greece,” Art Hogan, head of product strategy at Lazard Capital Markets, said of Europe’s debt crisis.
“We have a market that is stuck in no-man’s land. We’ve been in the same range for two months, roughly 1,100 to 1,200 on the S&P 500. We’re not oversold; we’re not overbought,” Hogan added.
After three days of triple-digit gains, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 20.21 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,103.12, leaving the blue chips with a 1.7 percent rise from the previous Friday’s close and marking the index’s second consecutive weekly gain, its first such streak since July.
Up 2.1 percent for the week, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index on Friday shed 9.51 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,155.46.
The Nasdaq composite index declined 27.47 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,479.35, a level that leaves it with a 2.7 percent weekly rise.
Stocks took a definitive turn lower after Fitch cut Spain and Italy’s credit ratings, saying both countries were more likely to default, thanks to Europe’s debt trouble.
Investor sentiment drew a lift from a rosier-than-forecast report on U.S. jobs growth but lost steam as investors squared positions ahead of the weekend.
Ahead of the opening bell, the Labor Department reported employers added 103,000 workers in September after a revised 57,000 increase the month before.
“It’s not enough to make a dent in the unemployment rate, but it indicates we’re not moving into a recession, which some have been pricing into the market,” said Brad Sorensen of the Schwab Center for Financial Research.
