Dow sinks below 10,000 on disappointing reports

It was a brutal week throughout the markets.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street skidded further Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrials back below 10,000 as disappointments from Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. deepened investors' dread of a second-half earnings slump.
All three indexes ended the week lower for the fourth straight week, as investors sold stocks across all sectors and industries, with technology and consumer staples taking the brunt of the selloff. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell to its lowest point of the year.
The drop was triggered by lower-than-expected earnings from Microsoft -- a rare miss that unnerved investors. And Wall Street saw Amazon.com's lower-than-expected earnings and revenues as a potential sign that consumer spending was slowing.
A brutal week
Combined with economic data that has pointed to what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called a "soft spot" in the economic recovery, the week was a brutal one throughout the markets.
"You take the economic data over the last few weeks, which has been disappointing, and now all these negative earnings outlooks, and then you add in all the worries about energy prices, terrorism, Iraq, the elections -- there's a lot to worry about out there," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at Spencer Clarke LLC. "It's going to take a while for these issues to be resolved, and I think we'll be stuck moving sideways to lower until then."
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 88.11, or 0.9 percent, at 9,962.22. It was the first time the Dow closed below 10,000 since May 24.
Broader stock indicators were also sharply lower. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 39.97, or 2.1 percent, to 1,849.09, its lowest closing level in 2004. The Nasdaq is now 7.7 percent lower for the year.
The Standard & amp; Poor's 500 index was down 10.64, or 1 percent, at 1,086.20, just 2 points shy of low for the year.
For the week, the Dow and Nasdaq both fell 1.8 percent, while the S & amp;P 500 was down 1.4 percent. It was the fourth straight down week for the Nasdaq, the fifth losing week for the Dow and the sixth for the S & amp;P 500.
The market has been sinking steadily since early July, when a disappointing jobs report from the Labor Department ended hopes for a summer rally and also started giving investors severe doubt about the strength of the economy.
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