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NYSE: Wall Street wonders if worst is over

A trader, center, walks down Exchange Place outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Friday. The Dow dipped after consumer spending was reported to be slow in January, raising fears about a possible recession. PHOTO: AFP

The gloom on Wall Street remains after a failed rally effort and investors still skittish about how far and how fast the US economy will sink.

Volatile trade has persisted, with the past week marked by three days of gains that were erased by two negative sessions.

Some analysts expect the stock market and the US economy to emerge from its funk later this year, but others worry that the worst has not been priced into shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.93 percent for the week to end Friday at 12,266.39.

The tech-dominated NASDAQ composite lost 1.38 percent for the week to 2,271.48 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 1.66 percent to 1,330.63.

The markets closed out last month with a second consecutive monthly loss. The Dow is down by 7.5 percent since Jan. 1, with the S&P some 9.4 percent lower and the NASDAQ down 14 percent.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did little to reassure nervous investors over the past week.

Delivering his semi-annual report to Congress, the Fed chief said the economic picture remains weak and that the Fed's job is complicated by high oil prices that have fueled inflation.

"Investors have been hit by a ton of fundamental negatives," market strategist Al Goldman at AG Edwards said.

"This raises the question of whether or not the market has been able to discount all the known problems and even some of the unknown ones," he said.

Bonds strengthened as investors looked for safe havens. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell to 3.534 percent from 3.790 percent a week earlier, while that on the 30-year bond eased to 4.420 percent from 4.582 percent.
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