Oil over $147 on Fannie and Freddie fears
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday as fears about the stability of the top two home financing providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with oil at a record above $147, clouded the economic outlook.
Friday's slide capped a tumultuous week, in which the S&P 500 joined the Nasdaq and the Dow in a bear market. It was the Nasdaq and the S&P 500's sixth straight weekly decline, their longest weekly losing streaks since 2004.
The broad market ended Friday's session down 1 percent as investors worried that the two pillars of the U.S. housing market could run short of capital, placing the fragile U.S. economy at even greater risk.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac traded erratically and ultimately ended lower. Pressure mounted for the U.S. government to act more swiftly to prevent the housing crisis from dragging down the nation's top mortgage finance agencies, as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicated that a bailout was unlikely.
A jump in U.S. crude oil prices to a record above $147 per barrel further soured investor sentiment on concerns about the impact of higher fuel costs on corporate profits and consumer spending.
"The bottom line is that we're in the middle of a financial tsunami. This is a storm the likes of which this country hasn't seen," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 128.48 points, or 1.14 percent, to 11,100.54. For the week, the Dow dropped 1.7 percent, its fourth straight weekly decline.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 13.90 points, or 1.11 percent, to 1,239.49. For the week, it fell 1.9 percent. Continued...
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