Stocks extend week's losses after 2-month rally

NEW YORK -- On Wall Street, not so bad is no longer good enough.

Stocks extended the week's losses Friday, further chilling the market's spring rally. Traders who last week sent stocks higher on economic news that wasn't as bad as expected are now selling. And analysts say it will take more upbeat data to restart the rally that swept major stock indicators up more than 30% from 12-year lows in early March.

The Labor Department said Friday that consumer prices in April were flat, as economists predicted. Manufacturing activity in the New York area and industrial production contracted less than economists expected. And a Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment rose to an eight-month high in May, a possible harbinger of improved consumer spending.

But even with this handful of silver-lining economic data, traders found little incentive to buy. Instead, a drop in the price of oil hit energy companies, while financial stocks slid on worries that the economic recovery could be further off than traders had been betting in recent months.

"This market is tired," said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading.

Wall Street's rally has also hit a lull now that the government's stress tests of banks are done, earnings reports are winding down and the first wave of April economic data has been released. Traders aren't clear what the next catalyst might be to pump the market higher — or whether the gains might erode.

"We've gotten through the panic point, and what will get us to the next level is seeing the economy actually grow. It'll happen, but it's a matter of when," said Douglas Kreps, managing director at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 62.68, or 0.8%, to 8,268.64. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 10.19, or 1.1%, to 882.88, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 9.07, or 0.5%, to 1,680.14.

For the week, the Dow fell 3.6%, the S&P 500 index lost 5% and the Nasdaq slid 3.4%.

With the S&P 500 index up 30.5% from the lows of two months ago, many traders are finding it a safer bet to cash in some of their gains. About two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 5.3 billion shares, compared with 6.8 billion shares traded Thursday.