First losing week of 2012 for Dow

The Dow Jones industrials fell 74 points to close at 12,660

Published: 10:27pm, 27th January 2012
Updated: 6:19pm, 28th January 2012

The US stock market has closed mostly lower, capping its first losing week of 2012, after the government reported that economic growth was slower at the end of last year than economists expected.

The Dow Jones industrial average spent the whole day in the red. It ended down 74 points, or 0.6%, at 12,660.46. The loss snapped a three-week winning streak for the Dow, which is still up 3.6% for the year.

The Standard & Poor's 500 struggled above even with an hour to go in trading, but it lost the gains and finished down 2.10 points at 1,316.33. The Nasdaq composite, which has more than doubled the Dow's gain for the year, edged up 11.27 to 2,816.55.

Economic growth for October through December came in at an annual rate of 2.8%. That was the fastest of 2011 but lower than the 3% that economists were looking for.

Utility companies led the way down with a fall of 1.3%t. Most of the other nine industries in the S&P also fell, but only slightly, continuing a curious trading pattern this year: Trading has been calm in the past four weeks, a big change from the violent moves up and down that marked much of 2011.

Friday was the 17th day in a row of moves of less than 100 points up or down for the Dow. The last time the index had a longer period of such small moves was a 34-day stretch that started Dec. 3, 2010.

Despite the drift lower, investors displayed some bullishness.

Roughly two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. And the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks rose nearly 2% for the week. Investors tend to sell stocks in the Russell when they're worried, not buy them, because smaller firms often don't have much cash and other resources when times get tough.

Next week, investors will turn their attention to Facebook, the powerhouse social network, which appears headed for the most anticipated initial public offering of stock in years.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said that Facebook could raise as much as 10 billion dollars in an offering that would value the company at 75 billion dollars to 100 billion dollars. That would vault Facebook into the largest public companies in the world, on par with the likes of McDonald's, Amazon.com and Visa. The Journal said Facebook could file IPO papers as early as Wednesday.