Stocks endure heavy losses

Credit concerns, weak jobs report bring Dow's 3rd worst day of year

? U.S. stocks plunged Friday, with credit concerns and a weak jobs report driving a sell-off that marked the Dow’s third worst day of the year and steep weekly losses for the broader market.

Already on the decline, the pace of the sell-off quickened after a Bear Stearns’ conference call about the effect of bad home loans on its funds failed to reassure investors.

“They tried to put their best face on the situation but the market wasn’t convinced,” said Mike Malone, trading analyst at Cowen & Co.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 284.8 points lower at 13,178.5, with all of its 30 stocks closing down and the Dow taking a weekly loss of 0.7 percent.

The S&P 500 dropped 39 points to close at 1,432.81 and a 1.8 percent loss for the week, while the Nasdaq Composite dived 64 points, or 2.5 percent, to close at 2,511, for a weekly drop of 1.9 percent.

Dow loss leaders include American Express Co., which was down 5.53 percent, and Alcoa Inc., which fell 4.35 percent.

Volume at the New York Stock Exchange surpassed 2 billion, with declining stocks outpacing advancers 6 to 1.

At the Nasdaq, more than 2.5 billion shares were exchanged, with decliners ahead of advancing stocks 5 to 1.

“It wasn’t long ago that Fridays were good in anticipation of more (leveraged buy-outs) and (mergers and acquisitions) over the weekend. Now there has been a shift in sentiment, with fear of bad news coming out over the weekend,” Malone said.

Stocks lost ground on a “disappointing” employment report and anxiety about “Bear Stearns and their credit concerns,” John Hughes, managing director at Epiphany Equity Research, told MarketWatch.

The stock of Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. fronted a large decline in the financial and brokerage sectors, its stock plunging 5.8 percent after S&P downgraded its outlook for Bear Sterns to negative.

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. fell 2.9 percent, while Dow component JP Morgan Chase Co. fell 2 percent.

Wachovia Corp. said its Vertice lending unit was temporarily pulling the plug on making “Alt-A,” home loans, which fall between prime and subprime in quality, until market conditions improve. Its stock was off 1.15 percent.