NEW YORK, NY (AP) — Energy and financial companies led a broad decline for U.S. stocks in midday trading Friday as the slump in the price of oil worsened, pulling crude below $30 a barrel. The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 400 points, extending its losses for the year. Discouraging data on retail sales and manufacturing also weighed on the market.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slid 430 points, or 2.6 percent, to 15,948 as of 12:08 p.m. Eastern Time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 54 points, or 2.8 percent, to 1,867. The Nasdaq composite dropped 157 points, or 3.4 percent, to 4,457. The Dow and S&P 500 have now fallen more than 8 percent this year, while the Nasdaq is off nearly 11 percent.
THE QUOTE: “Oil is the root cause of today,” said Dan Farley, regional investment strategist at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank. “People are uncertain, and when they’re uncertain they’re scared.”
VOLATILE MARKET: Stocks were coming off a broad rally on Thursday that gave the S&P 500 index its biggest gain since early December. That gain was a reversal from a day earlier, when the market turned in its worst day since September. Behind the market swings are growing investor jitters about the slowdown in China’s massive economy, plunging oil prices and the implications those trends may have for U.S. corporations.