* Railroads push DJ transportation average down 3.5 pct
* Microsoft, Amazon shares soar on results
* Dow's 2nd close below 10,000 this week
* Dow off 1.1 pct, S&P off 1.2 pct, Nasdaq off 0.5 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click []
(Updates to close)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Friday,
with the major indexes slipping for the first week in three,
as industrial companies' weak results overshadowed robust
earnings from tech and retail heavy-weights.
The blue-chip Dow average finished below 10,000 for the
second time this week.
A stronger U.S. dollar hit commodity prices, hurting the
energy and materials sectors, while an analyst's comments on a
major railroad's stock hit the transports sector.
Shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp <BNI.N>, the
second-biggest U.S. railroad, slid over 6 percent after an RBC
Capital analyst cut his price target on the stock and helped
drive the Dow Jones Transportation Average <.DJT> down 3.5
percent. An index of S&P industrial companies <> lost 1.7
percent. For a story on the industrial sector outlook see
[].
The U.S. dollar rose against the pound <GBP=> after data
showed the UK posted its sixth straight quarter of contraction
in gross domestic product, the longest stretch on record, and
better-than-expected U.S. housing data gave the greenback an
extra boost.
The dollar's strength helped push oil and commodity prices
lower, sending shares of companies in the energy and materials
sectors down. The S&P materials sector <.GSPM> fell 2.1
percent.
But shares of technology bellwether Microsoft Corp
<MSFT.O> jumped 5.4 percent to $28.02 and online retailer
Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> soared a whopping 26.8 percent to
$118.49 after earlier climbing to a lifetime high of $119.65.
[] [].
"In the face of a market moving down, Microsoft and Amazon
are up strong. Today it is not a stock market, but a market of
stocks. If companies come out with good reports, they are
being rewarded," said Robert Auer, senior portfolio manager at
SBAuer Funds in Indianapolis.
"For the rest of the market, it is a normal day. We're up
more than 50 percent on the S&P from the March lows, and the
market just has to go down sometimes."
The Dow Jones industrial average <> dropped 109.13
points, or 1.08 percent, to 9,972.18, marking its second
finish this week below the 10,000 mark. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> dropped 13.31 points, or 1.22 percent, to
1,079.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> dropped 10.82
points, or 0.50 percent, to 2,154.47.
On Wednesday, the Dow industrials also finished slightly
below the 10,000 mark following a late sell-off led by
financial stocks.
For the week, the Dow slipped 0.2 percent and the S&P 500
declined 0.7 percent, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.1 percent.
RAILROADS' ROUGH DAY
In Friday's session, Burlington Northern's shares fell 6.5
percent, or $5.50, to $79.12 a day after the company reported
a 30 percent drop in quarterly profit. The company hauls a
variety of commodities such as coal, grain, lumber,
construction materials, automobiles and consumer goods.
[].
An RBC Capital analyst cut his price target on Burlington
Northern's stock to $87 from $91, while keeping his
"underperform" rating.
Shares of Union Pacific Corp <UNP.N>, the largest U.S.
railroad, tumbled 5.6 percent, or $3.39, to $57.73.
Oilfield services company Schlumberger Ltd <SLB.N> dropped
5 percent to $65.20 after it warned natural gas drilling
activity would remain weak until late 2010. []
This year, natural gas prices globally have been too low to
justify much drilling of new wells, Schlumberger said.
U.S. crude oil futures <CLc1> fell 69 cents, or 0.9
percent, to settle at $80.50 a barrel. The S&P energy sector
index <.GSPE> slid 2 percent.
Top decliners in the tech sector included Broadcom Corp
<BRCM.O> and MEMC Electronic Materials Inc <WFR.N> following
disappointing quarterly results.
Shares of Broadcom, which makes chips for everything from
cellphones to TV set-top boxes, slid 7.3 percent to $28.50 on
Nasdaq. The stock of MEMC Electronic Materials, which makes
silicon, the major raw material for the solar and
semiconductor industries, dropped 10.1 percent to $13.87 on
the New York Stock Exchange.
The semiconductor index <.SOXX> lost 3.2 percent.
Earlier in the day, September data showed sales of
previously owned U.S. homes surged to their highest level
since July 2007. []
Volume was moderate on the New York Stock Exchange, with
1.28 billion shares changing hands, below last year's
estimated daily average of 1.49 billion. On the Nasdaq, about
2.48 billion shares traded, above last year's daily average of
2.28 billion.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by
a ratio of about 3 to 1, while on the Nasdaq, nearly 10 stocks
fell for every three that rose.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Aarthi
Sivaraman; Editing by Jan Paschal)
