Wall Street extends slide on economic worries

The stock market turned in an uneven performance Friday on a mixed series of corporate earnings reports.

Traders pounced on companies showing signs of life and dumped companies whose quarterly results fell short of expectations. Better-than-forecast results from Google helped technology shares while lackluster numbers from General Electric reinforced investors’ concerns about the depths of the recession.

Insurance company Aflac helped ease some of Wall Street’s concerns about the financial industry after telling investors that it had more than enough cash to maintain its debt ratings. The company’s stock tumbled 37% on Thursday on reports that it did not have adequate capital to cover risky investments. But the shares rebounded 6.9% on Friday after the company issued a statement and after an analyst released a favorable research note.

The results from GE weighed on industrial names and held the Dow Jones industrial average to a loss as broader indexes climbed. Although the results met Wall Street’s lowered expectations, investors grew worried that GE would cut its dividend or lose its coveted “AAA” credit rating because the recession has crimped lending at GE Capital and has hurt its industrial and entertainment businesses. GE shares fell 11%.

Stocks ended a volatile session well off their lows after a sizable comeback that was the latest back-and-forth seen throughout a turbulent week; the Dow tumbled 4% on Tuesday, jumped 3% on Wednesday and fell again Thursday.

On Friday, the Dow dropped 45.24 points, or 0.6%, to 8,077.56. The blue-chip gauge had been down more than 200 points early in the day and briefly moved into positive territory.

Broader stock indicators rose. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 4.45 points, or 0.5%, to 831.95, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 11.80 points, or 0.8%, to 1,477.29.

The Russell 2,000 index of smaller companies rose 0.3%.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by about 8 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange.

For the week, the Dow fell 2.5%, the S&P; 500 was down 2.1% and the Nasdaq sank 3.4%.

“I think we had a lot of bad news to absorb and stocks did OK,” said Thomas J. Lee, equity analyst at JPMorgan, referring to the week’s performance. “We had bad earnings. It’s all coming in below reduced expectations.”

Reports from a wide range of industries Friday gave fresh evidence of the toll the weak economy is taking.

Copier and printer maker Xerox slid 7.4% after its results fell short of projections.

Capital One Financial lost 12% after the credit-card giant reported a loss rather than the profit Wall Street had expected. And Harley-Davidson dropped 7.3% after saying it would cut jobs and shipments because of falling demand.

Drug maker Wyeth jumped 14% on a report that Pfizer is in talks to acquire the rival company in a deal valued at more than $60 billion.

Treasury bond yields edged up, while the dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies. Gold prices rose.

Oil futures jumped $2.80 to settle at $46.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, key stock indexes fell 0.7% in France and 3.8% in Japan, and rose 1% in Germany and edged up in Britain.