U.S. Stocks Post Third Weekly Loss In A Month

Stocks ended lower on Friday, giving back a small advance early in the session after the International Monetary Fund cut its growth outlook for the U.S. next year and urged the Federal Reserve to carefully manage its exit from monetary stimulus plans. Stocks also were pressured by a drop in consumer sentiment and weak industrial data. Most industry sectors ended lower, led by declines for energy and financial shares.

The American market fell for its third week in a month as Fed watchers leery of next week's FOMC meeting took a wait-and-see approach to the week's final trading session while U.S. growth forecasts from the IMF only reinforced their decision to sit the day out.

Lowered Expectations
The IMF lowered its U.S. growth forecast for 2014 to 2.7%, down 0.3 percentage points from its prior guidance in April, but left its 2013 prediction for growth unchanged at 1.9%. The IMF said it sees the Fed continuing its monthly bond purchases through the end of the year - if not beyond - and urged the central bank to carefully manage its exit plan to avoid disrupting financial markets.

Fed Watch
The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee next meets for two days starting Tuesday, with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke scheduled to take reporters' questions after the FOMC decision on Wednesday. The S&P 500 has slipped about 1.8% since May 21 when Bernanke said the central bank may scale back bond buying if the U.S. labor market "improves in a real and sustainable way."

The S&P is now off nearly 3.7% from its May 22 high of 1,687.18. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 17 points, or about 1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 178 points for a 1.2% decline and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 66 points, or about 1.3%.

Consumer Sentiment
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan June preliminary index of consumer sentiment fell to 82.7 from a final reading of 84.5 the prior month, a report showed Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was unchanged at 84.5. Other reports showed U.S. industrial production was unchanged in May and wholesale prices climbed for the first time in three months, reflecting an increase in fuel and food prices that failed to filter through to other goods.

The manufacturing sector also remains very soft based on May data, with overall industrial production unchanged last month following a upwardly revised 0.4% decline in April, according to new Federal Reserve data. Expectations were for a 0.2% gain.

Also, Friday, headline producer price index inflation posted a higher-than-expected 0.5% rise in May due to both higher energy and food costs while the core rate remained soft with a 0.1% increase, matching expectations. Experts were looking for a 0.2% increase in the May headline number following a 0.7% decline the prior month.

Commodities were mostly higher. Crude oil for July delivery settled $1.16 higher at $97.85 per barrel while July natural gas fell 8 cents to finish at $3.73 per 1 mln BTU. August gold climbed $9.80 to $1,387.60 per ounce while July silver added 37 cents to $21.95 per ounce. July copper was up 2 cents, settling at $3.20 per pound.

Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End

• Dow Jones Industrial Average down 105.90 (-0.70%) to 15,070.18
• S&P 500 down 9.65 (-0.59%) to 1,626.71
• Nasdaq Composite Index down 21.81 (-0.63%) to 3,423.56

• Hang Seng Index up 0.39%
• Shanghai China Composite Index up 0.64%
• FTSE 100 Index up 0.06%

• (+) GRPN, Deutsche Bank upgrade to Buy from Hold. Price target raised by $4 to $10 a share. "Groupon has already evolved into one of the best plays on mobile in our coverage universe," according to DB analyst Ross Sandler.
• (+) SWHC, Preliminary Q4, FY13 earnings and sales beat Street view; Launches debt exchange and purchase as well as a new, $100-mln stock buyback program.
• (+) PBIP, Discloses plans to reorganize from a two-tier mutual holding company into a stock-holding institution.
• (+) BCSB, Agrees to be acquired by FNB Corp in a stock swap that Values BCSB at $23.77 a share. FNB expects the deal to be slightly accretive to EPS in the first full year.

• (-) CEMP, Prices offering of 7.2 mln shares at $7.00 apiece.
• (-) UPI, Delays filing 10-K annual report with regulators.
• (-) WLT, Proposed $1.55-bln loan refinancing reportedly fall apart.