Large Stock Focus: GE Declines 3.8%; Conoco Gains 2.9%
NEW YORK -- A disappointing report on the labor market and continued concern about a possible overextension during the market's third-quarter surge pushed stocks into the red for the seventh time in eight sessions Friday, led by industrials such as General Electric, Boeing and Caterpillar.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 21.61, or 0.2%, to 9487.67. For the week, the index slipped or 1.8%, marking its second weekly decline in a row, though it remains up 8.1% for the year to date.</br></br>"The entire third quarter was one big run. To me, this is just a healthy working off of an overbought condition," said Gary Flam, a portfolio manager with Bel Air Investment Advisors. "Still, putting money to work right now is akin to picking up nickels on the train tracks. You may get a couple dollars in your pocket, but you run a significant risk of getting run over."</br></br>For Friday, the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 4.64, or 0.5%, to 1025.21, including a 1.5% drop for industrials. For the week, the S&P 500 declined 19.17, or 1.8%, losing 4% in the past two weeks.</br></br>Among the slate of industrials, GE fell 61 cents, or 3.8%, to $15.36; Boeing lost 71 cents, or 1.4%, to 51.40; and Caterpillar fell 62 cents, or 1.3%, to 48.83.