DJIA >>> Red Week Ends Undecided

Amid persistent economic anxiety, the markets closed with a hung jury on Friday, capping off Wall Street's first four-week slump since the darkest days of March. Stocks zigzagged during the week, failing to hold what few gains they could muster. The Dow Jones industrials and the Standard & Poor's 500 index have now fallen four straight weeks.

Investors are on edge as the second-quarter earnings season heats up. Aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. unofficially kicked off the period with better-than-expected results on Wednesday, but a warning from Chevron Corp. late Thursday put investors back on the defensive. Alcoa and Chevron are among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow.

The pace of reports picks up speed next week with results coming in from heavy hitters such as Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Google Inc. and General Electric Co.

Investors are looking to the reports, and especially the forecast companies give on the remainder of the year, for insight into where the economy is headed. Expectations are generally low as investors worry that they were too quick to expect a rebound in the economy when they began bidding stocks sharply higher in March. With little to fuel more gains, the rally has fizzled.
Today's Markets
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.65 points, or 0.45%, to 8146.52, the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 3.55 points, or 0.40%, to 879.13 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 3.48 points, or 0.20%, to 1756.03. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 tumbled 3.02 points, or 0.46%, to 652.09.
Fears about the still-weak U.S. economy were bolstered Friday by a new report that revealed consumer sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated in the beginning of July. On top of the weaker-than-expected data, the markets were hurt by another drop in crude oil prices, Chevron's profit warning and looming earnings from bank stocks Citigroup next week.

“Consumer sentiment put a kibosh on everything today. The market has been on wobbly legs all week and I think that number on a Friday only made it easier to continue selling stocks in general,” said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities.
While stocks ended off their worst levels, Wall Street's third mixed finish of the week left the markets stuck in another weekly decline, the fourth in a row. The markets continues to be haunted by a lack of concrete evidence about the timing and strength of a potential second-half rebound for the U.S. economy.

The Dow was led lower Friday by Chevron and JPMorgan Chase. On the other hand, the index's biggest percentage winners were American Express and 3M.
The Nasdaq eked out gains as tech stocks like Apple and Yahoo! closed solidly higher. The tech sector benefited from Dell , which was upgraded by Goldman Sachs to “buy” from “neutral" and added to the bank’s Conviction Buy List. Goldman also upgraded the hardware sector to “attractive” from “neutral” on a “compelling buying opportunity.”

Next week the spotlight will shift to financial earnings as results are expected from JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Underscoring the anxiety, all four of those banks ended in the red Friday amid a 1% decline for the financial sector.

At the same time, stocks continue to closely track the price of crude oil, which returned to the red Friday following a one-day reprieve. Capping off its steepest weekly plunge since late January, fell 52 cents, or 0.86%, to $59.89 -- its lowest settle since May 19.
“It’s almost like a never-ending loop. Oil trades down because the economy is slowing and the economy is slowing because oil is trading down,” said an oil dealer.

Global Markets
European stocks slumped as London's FTSE 100 sank 0.76% to 4127.17, France's CAC 40 tumbled 1.42% to 2983.10 and Germany's DAX lost 2.8% to 4576.31.
Asian markets also ended in the red overnight as Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.04% to 9287.28 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.46% to 17708.42.