Dow’s Big Week Has Down Finish

Wall Street ended a record-breaking week quietly Friday, edging lower after the Labor Department said employers added far fewer jobs than expected last month. The major indexes all scored big gains for the week.
While the jobs report gave investors further confirmation that the economy is slowing — employers created just 51,000 new jobs last month, well off the 120,000 Wall Street expected — the market is now concerned that the economy might be moderating too much.
Even the prospects of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve came as little comfort Friday.
“We’ve had a market that wants to see bad news as good news with respect to the Fed,” said Bryan Piskorowski, a market analyst at Wachovia Securities LLC. “(Now the) economy is slowing, the housing market is slowing, consumer spending is starting to slow. You run that tightwire where bad news eventually becomes bad news.”
Bonds fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.70 percent from 4.61 percent late Thursday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Light sweet crude settled down 27 cents at $59.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Investors are still paying close attention to oil prices, as their decline has helped drive the market’s upward rise in recent months.
Kevin Logan, chief U.S. economist at Dresdner Kleinwort, said stocks rose this week as investors found encouragement in falling oil prices.
“It lessens inflation pressure and lowers the possibility that the Fed would have to raise rates,” he said.