NEW YORK — Stocks mostly declined Friday, cutting into weekly gains, as investors measured further evidence of an improving labor market against the declining euro.
“The euro continues to fall, and I think that puts a lot of downward pressure on our stock market. We’re a global economy now, and if banks fail in Europe, we need to be concerned,” said Kim Caughey Forrest, a senior equity analyst at Fort Capital in Pittsburgh.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 55.78 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,359.92. The blue-chip index rose 1.2 percent for the week, which was shortened by Monday’s New Year’s holiday. Trading volumes were light.
Alcoa paced blue-chip losses, with a Citi analyst predicting the aluminum producer Monday would report its first quarterly loss of the recession.
Alcoa’s earnings mark the unofficial start for fourth-quarter 2011 earnings, with analysts also looking for indications of what’s ahead.
“Earnings are still a big focus,” said Caughey Forrest. “You want to know what these individual companies are seeing, and how they’re positioned to navigate what we see as another choppy year.”
Up 1.6 percent from last Friday’s close, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 3.25 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,277.81. The Nasdaq composite bucked the trend, closing up 4.36 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,674.22, for a 2.7 percent weekly gain.
A stronger dollar weighed on commodities.
Crude-oil futures declined 0.3 percent to end at $101.56 a barrel; gold futures fell 0.2 percent to finish the floor session at $1,616.80 an ounce.
Equities gave a lackluster response to the government Friday reporting 200,000 workers were added to U.S. nonfarm payrolls in December, while the jobless rate fell to 8.5 percent, nearly a three-year low.
“Expectations were raised after the ADP (Automatic Data Processing) number Thursday, and eyes are still on Europe” regarding the possible global impact of the region’s debt troubles, said Brad Sorensen, an analyst at the Schwab Center For Financial Research. “Add all that up and it leads to a tepid reaction.”
