Concerns Over Spain Offset U.S. Consumer Confidence Improvement

Stocks finished lower on Friday as concerns over Spain offset improvement in U.S. consumer confidence. Ken Meyers has your market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

The Dow ended the session 74 points lower at 12454. The S&P 500 lost almost 3 points to close at 1317. The NASDAQ fell almost 2 points to finish the week at 2837. Breadth on both the NYSE and NASDAQ were even on issues. NYSE composite volume totaled over 2.7 billion shares.
Despite today’s decline, the major averages snapped a three week losing streak. For the week, the Dow gained 0.7%. The S&P 500 rose 1.7% and the NASDAQ advanced 2.1%.
The major averages retreated today after a report Spain’s regional governments are struggling with finances. The Spanish debt concerns muted investor optimism over an unexpected increase of the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index to its highest level since 2007.
Economically sensitive stocks declined with Chevron falling $1.20 to $98.86.
Industrials and financials were among the worst performing groups with Boeing down $1.39 to $70.00 and JP Morgan off 47 cents to $33.50.
Over in tech, Facebook resumed its decline. Shares of the social networking website fell $1.52 to $31.50, extending its loss to over 16% since its shares were priced at $38 on May 17. Telecom was the best performing sector with CenturyLink gaining 24 cents to $38.94.
Treasuries rallied with the 10-year note up 11/32 to yield 1.74%.

For the complete report, click Ken's Market Report.