By DPA,
New York : US stocks fell Friday, capping one of the worst weeks since March as oil prices fell while a government official suggested some banking executives could be forced out in the coming weeks.
Crude oil dropped 3.9 percent to $56.34 per barrel in New York trading, pushing energy shares lower.
Financial stocks fell after Sheila Bair, chief of the Federal Deposit Insurance, a US banking regulatory agency, said the government will consider management changes at banks that are still taking bail-out money.
Bank of America, whose chief executive Ken Lewis is considered one of the most vulnerable, led the financial declines. The bank was told last week to raise $34 billion in capital as part of the government’s “stress tests” of the industry.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 62.68 points, or 0.75 percent, to 8,628.64. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Index tumbled 10.19 points, or 1.14 percent, to 882.88. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 9.07 points, or 0.54 percent, to 1,680.14.
Over the week, the S&P 500 has fallen 5 percent, the Dow 3.6 percent and the Nasdaq 3.4 percent. US stocks has surged higher since hitting a 12-year low in early March.
The US currency rose against the euro to 74.13 euro cents from 73.31 euro cents Thursday. The dollar dropped against the Japanese currency to 95.14 yen from 95.83 yen.