NEW YORK — Another flare-up in Europe’s debt crisis knocked U.S. markets lower Friday. This time, it was more trouble at a major Spanish bank.
Stock indexes were waffling between small gains and losses until news broke in the afternoon that Bankia, a hobbled Spanish lender, asked that country’s government for $23.8 billion in support. Earlier in the day, Standard & Poor’s cut the bank’s credit rating to junk status because of deepening uncertainty over its restructuring plans.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped as much as 108 points before closing at 12,454.83, down 74.92 points. Concerns about Europe have sent the Dow on a steady slide this month, erasing most of its gains from the first quarter. It finished the week slightly higher, its first weekly gain for May.
The declines were broad. Eight of the 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell. The only sectors that rose were utilities and telecommunications, which investors tend to buy when they’re skittish about the market.
Facebook, marking its one-week anniversary as a public company, fell 3.4 percent to $31.91. Talbots, the women’s clothing chain, plunged 41 percent to $1.51 after announcing that a deadline expired without a deal to be bought by Sycamore Partners.
In addition to the new worries about Spain, the head of Germany’s central bank, which has been skeptical of bailing out Greece and other weak European countries, reinforced the point when he said it was an “illusion” to think allowing euro-zone countries to borrow money jointly would solve the crisis. The Portuguese parliament endorsed a budget plan that would set legal limits on government spending.
In other trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.86 points to 1,317.82. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.85 points to 2,837.53.
