USA Market Event

16:20 ET Dow -213.32 at 10667.39, Nasdaq -54.11 at 2247.70, S&P -23.55 at 1261.49: [BRIEFING.COM] Infected with wide-spread selling, Friday's stock market steadily slipped from bell to bell. A trio of disappointing fourth quarter earnings reports paired with the surging price of crude in pushing the indices to their worst performance in nearly a year and a half, and to losses that erased much of their average 3% year-to-date gain. Volume was higher than average, an indication of conviction behind the move.

Uncertainty over Iran helped send crude to a four-month high of $68.35 per barrel. Reports that the country is moving funds out of Europe to shield them in the event the U.N. imposes sanctions for its nuclear ambitions, and that it may cut its OPEC output and withhold oil from the market, rocked trade. At the same time, crude's rise did little good for the Energy sector (+0.2%), and even it couldn't escape the effects of broad-based selling. One of the market's sole bright spots lied there, though. Following a much better than expected earnings report from Schlumberger (SLB 122.21 +7.34), as well as its assertion that its top line growth during the current fiscal year should be similar to that of 2005's, the Oil Services Index rose about 1.8%.

With earnings season in the spotlight, lackluster results from General Electric (GE 33.37 -1.31) and a disappointing decline in profits from Citigroup (C 45.76 -2.18) tanked the Dow. As these reports come on the heels of similar upsets from high-profile names like Intel, Yahoo, and Apple, the market reacted aggressively. While only about 20% of the S&P 500 has thus reported Q4 results, today's batch nonetheless gave investors reason to maintain a defensive stance. Because of GE, Industrials fell 2.3%. Due to C, Financials dropped 2.1%. A yield curve that spent most of the session inverted added to the latter sector's woes and compounded Citigroup's effect upon banks. On the other side of the aisle, KeyCorp (KEY 34.16 +1.03) delivered strong Q4 results that left it as one of the sector's sole pockets of strength. As GE and C respectively represent the S&P's first and third most influential issues, the broader market faced significant pressure. Particularly, the Dow fully relinquished its year-to-date gain.

It was the Technology sector that levied the greatest loss. The aforementioned tech disappointments continued to plague the sector, and slightly lower than expected revenues and in-line Q1 guidance from Motorola (MOT 22.48 -1.87) sent the communication equipment industry reeling. As a side note, MOT is one of Briefing.com's recommended holdings for active investors; we view its report as solid and maintain our bullish view on the issue as well as on the industry. Due to some issuances of downside guidance and subsequent downgrades, semiconductors plunged over 4%; Google's (GOOG 399.41 -37.04) extended decline related to the Department of Justice's data request fostered further selling and roiled the Nasdaq.

Separately, the University of Michigan's preliminary read on January consumer sentiment was the only piece of economic data delivered today. Better than expected results demonstrate a strengthening trend, but the data does not directly correlate with consumer spending and thus was overlooked by the stock and bond markets alike. With an absence of data on today's economic front, the market had virtually no diversion from the negative earnings news and soaring price of crude. Nasdaq -54.11 at 2247.70... NYSE Adv/Dec 986/2292... Nasdaq Adv/Dec 833/2223.