Stocks mostly fall, and S&P 500 has its first down week in a month

Shares of department stores sank again Friday, hurt by more evidence that shoppers are turning away from them. A drop in Treasury yields put pressure on bank stocks, and the weakness helped pull the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to its first weekly loss in the last four weeks.

The S&P 500 slipped 3.54 points, or 0.1%, to close at 2,390.90, part of a 0.3% loss for the week. The index is still within half a percent of its record, though, and the market continues to make only modest moves through what has become a weeks-long lull.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 22.81 points, or 0.1%, to 20,896.61, and the Nasdaq composite rose 5.27 points, or 0.1%, to 6,121.23. Small-company stocks fell more than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index fell 7.43 points, or 0.5%, to 1,382.77.

The biggest loss in the S&P 500 came from Nordstrom, which plunged 10.8% to $41.20 after it said a key sales figure weakened last quarter by more than analysts expected. Nordstrom joined a long list of department-store chains that have reported discouraging results recently as their customers head online.

J.C. Penney dived 14% to $4.55 after it reported a loss for its latest quarter and weaker revenue than analysts expected.

The broader market, though, was much more pacific. It was the 13th straight day that the S&P 500 moved less than 0.5%, the longest such streak since 1995.

“It’s extremely calm, which always makes us a little nervous,” said Eric Marshall, portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management. “We’re in a very narrow market and a very thin market: It’s hard to buy things, and it’s hard to sell things because the amount of trading volume out there has slowed down in recent weeks.”

The market has grown sleepier as companies have reported stronger-than-expected profits and as encouraging data lifted optimism about the global economy. The calm also comes despite a spate of political jolts, including concerns about how successful Republicans in Washington will be at pushing through the pro-business changes that many investors are expecting.

A government report Friday showed that shoppers picked up their spending at auto dealers, hardware stores and online shops last month, and retail sales rose 0.4% from March. That was below economists’ expectations, but it’s an acceleration from weak levels registered earlier in the year. It also may be an indication that the economy will pick up from its early-in-the-year torpor, as many economists predict.

Consumer prices also gained a bit of momentum in April. Prices rose 0.2% last month, following a drop of 0.3% in March, as energy prices climbed. But after excluding energy and food prices, inflation was weaker last month than economists expected.

The Federal Reserve is paying close attention to inflation as it raises interest rates off their record lows — particularly looking at inflation after excluding energy and food prices, which can be volatile.

Bond yields dropped as Treasury prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.32% from 2.40%. The two-year yield fell to 1.28% from 1.34%, and the 30-year yield fell to 2.99% from 3.03%.

Bank stocks have recently been trading in the opposite direction of Treasury yields because a pickup in interest rates would enable banks to make bigger profits from making loans.

Financial stocks in the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, second-most among the 11 sectors that make up the index.

On the winning side were utilities, whose relatively big dividends look more attractive when bonds are paying less in interest.

In European markets, the French CAC 40 rose 0.4%, the German DAX gained 0.5% and the FTSE 100 in London picked up 0.7%. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.4%, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong ticked up 0.1%.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose a penny to $47.84 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 7 cents to $50.84 a barrel.

Natural gas rose 5 cents to $3.42 per 1,000 cubic feet, heating oil was flat at $1.49 a gallon and wholesale gasoline rose a penny to $1.58 a gallon.

Gold rose $3.50 to $1,227.70 an ounce, silver rose 14 cents to $16.40 an ounce and copper rose 2 cents to $2.52 a pound.

The euro rose to $1.0931 from $1.0866. The dollar fell to 113.29 yen from 113.88 yen, and the British pound slipped to $1.2886 from $1.2890.

UPDATES:

2:25 p.m.: This article was updated with closing prices, context and analyst comment.

1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with the close of markets.

This article was originally published at 6:50 a.m.