Dow falls for 4th straight week

Updated: 6 p.m. ET.

Stocks struggled again on Friday, and crude oil closed below $60 a barrel for the first time since May amid continued worries about the economy.

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) closed down 37 points to 8,147. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) fell 4 points to 879. 

But the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) was up 3 points to 1,756. The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X), which tracks the largest Nasdaq stocks, added 5 points to 1,420.

The unease that weighed on the market all week will likely extend into next week as a host of companies -- especially big financial institutions -- report second-quarter earnings.

Among the big companies reporting next week are railroad CSX (CSX), Goldman Sachs (GS), Intel (INTC), IBM (IBM), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and General Electric (GE).

The market has been easing back since June 12, when the Dow Jones industrials finished at 8,799 and ahead on the year for the first time since Jan. 6.

The Dow has now fallen back 7.4% since that June 12 finish. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have fallen back by similar amounts.

The Dow finished the week down 1.6%. The S&P 500 dropped 1.9%, with a 2.6% decline for the Nasdaq.

Because of the malaise, interest rates fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.29% on Friday from $3.41% Thursday. The yield was the lowest since May 20.

The market struggled for much of the week. Market sentiment shifted abruptly after the Labor Department reported a worse-than-expected decline in payroll employment in June. The report basically blew up just about all projections for the start of a decent recovery sometime in the fall.

That the market fell on Friday was a signal that investors aren't confident about what's coming next.

Adding to Friday's gloomy mood was the Reuters/University of Michigan survey that showed consumers' optimism about the economy waned this month.

The survey's confidence index fell to a reading of 64.6 in July from 70.8 in June, the weakest reading since   March. Economists had expected the confidence index to fall to 70.5.

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"This is an extremely weak report relative to what the market was expecting, though given the recent sour data hitting the markets this is not too surprising to see it filter through to overall sentiment measures," Ian Pollick, economics strategist at TD Securities, told MarketWatch.

Another expert pointed to jobs as a continued worry. "There’s a lot of concern about job losses, and people think they won’t be able to earn more," Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Holdings, told Bloomberg News.

"Until the employment picture clears up, we can’t anticipate persistent gains in consumer spending."

Crude oil closed down 52 cents to $59.89 a barrel Friday, continuing what's been a big slide in the commodity all week. The close was the first below $60 since May 19.  

Oil fell 10.3% this week on worries that consumption in the U.S. will continue to be weak this year. If its decline continues, it would be the biggest weekly drop since January.

Crude was up as much as 63% for the year on June 11 when it closed at $72.68 a barrel; the gain has been cut to 34.3%.

While oil stocks have fallen along with crude oil, consumers should be happier. AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report put the national average retail price of gasoline at $2.565 a gallon on Friday, down from $2.58 a gallon on Thursday.

Since peaking at $2.693, the AAA national average has fallen 4.8%.

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In its monthly report, the International Energy Agency said global oil demand would be 83.8 million barrels a day this year, a contraction of 2.9%, or 2.5 million barrels a day. The IEA said, however, that 2010 demand should rise by 1.7%, or 1.4 million barrels of oil per day, to 85.2 million barrels a day.

Chevron (CVX), which warned late Thursday of lower profit margins, was down 2.6% to $61.45, subtracting 13 points from the Dow. It was the second-worst performer among the 30 Dow stocks, ahead of JPMorgan Chase, which fell 3.8% to $32.33.

The Amex Oil Index ($XOI.X), which tracks the largest oil companies, was down 1.3% to 854. Exxon Mobil (XOM), like Chevron a Dow component, was off 1.3% to $65.12.

Dow component IBM fell 1.2% to $100.83 after being downgraded to "neutral" from "buy" at Goldman Sachs.

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Dow component and tech bellweather Cisco Systems (CSCO) Friday moved higher after Thomas Weisel analyst Hasan Imam boosted his earnings estimate on the company.

Imam said Cisco is in the process of cutting 1,500 to 2,000 jobs, as well as making progress on its plans to cut costs.

Imam boosted his 2010 earnings estimate to $1.44 per share, up from a previous estimate of $1.41, for next year. 

Cisco shares were up 0.9% to $18.34.

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Apple (AAPL), Qualcomm (QCOM), Google (GOOG) and Cisco helped push the Nasdaq-100 move higher.

Apple rose 1.6% to $138.52 after Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope boosted his fiscal-third-quarter revenue and earnings estimates for the company. The company reports on July 21. 

Eleven of the 30 Dow stocks were higher on Friday, along with 185 S&P 500 stocks and 53 Nasdaq-100 stocks.

Prices of imported goods rose 3.2% in June, the biggest increase since November 2007 and the fourth monthly gain in a row. Analysts had expected the import price index to rise 2.5% in June.

Elizabeth Strott contributed to this report.