michigan consumers cofidence down ..actual 91.3...forecasted 93.5..no other econ data tonite....therefore if dow is down by less than 50 pts at the end of today's session, maybe sea not so red 2morrow spore market.
NEW YORK -- Stocks opened the final session of a tumultuous week falling modestly as the yen rallied against the dollar Friday and a weaker-than-expected profit report from Dell Inc. weighed on technology stocks.
Larger economic concerns such as the ascendent yen have dominated Wall Street for much of the week after Tuesday's worldwide selloff that sent the Dow industrials down 416 points and rattled investor confidence about the state of the U.S. economy.
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With little of the economic data that has at turns helped and deflated investor sentiment this week, investors again looked abroad for direction. Performance of markets abroad has taken on renewed importance this week after a nearly 9 percent drop Tuesday in the Shanghai Composite Index helped set off worldwide selling and sent U.S. stocks reeling. The major U.S. indexes each lost more than 3 percent. On Thursday, the major indexes ended lower though they pared sharp losses from early in the session.
In the first hour of trading Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 19.62, or 0.16 percent, to 12,214.72.
Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 3.72, or 0.27 percent, at 1,399.45 and the Nasdaq composite index was off 6.80, or 0.28 percent, at 2,398.41.
Bonds rose, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note falling to 4.54 percent from 4.55 percent late Thursday. The dollar is mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices down.
The schedule for economic data was light; the final Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading for February is due later Friday.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole said in remarks prepared for a speech Friday in Santiago, Chile, that rising energy prices wouldn't necessarily lead to an economic slowdown if monetary policy were laid out carefully.
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