Stocks extend losses

NEW YORK (AP) — On Wall Street, not so bad is no longer good enough.

Stocks extended the week’s losses Friday, further chilling the market’s spring rally. Traders who last week sent stocks higher on economic news that wasn’t as bad as expected are now selling. And analysts say it will take more upbeat data to restart the rally that swept major stock indicators up more than 30 percent from 12-year lows in early March.

The Labor Department said Friday that consumer prices in April were flat, as economists predicted. Manufacturing activity in the New York area and industrial production contracted less than economists expected. And a Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment rose to an eight-month high in May, a possible harbinger of improved consumer spending.

But even with this handful of silver-lining economic data, traders found little incentive to buy. Instead, a drop in the price of oil hit energy companies, while financial stocks slid on worries that the economic recovery could be further off than traders had been betting in recent months.

“This market is tired,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC.

Wall Street’s rally has also hit a lull now that the government’s stress tests of banks are done, earnings reports are winding down and the first wave of April economic data has been released. Traders aren’t clear what the next catalyst might be to pump the market higher — or whether the gains might erode.