US STOCKS-Bank of America, GE results weigh on market

                                

                                
 * GE, Bank of America results raise recovery concerns
                                
 * Weak consumer sentiment overshadows industrial data
                                
 * Dow off 0.7 pct, S&P 500 0.8 pct, Nasdaq 0.7 pct
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news, click [STXNEWS/US]
 (Updates to midafternoon, changes byline)
                                
 By Leah Schnurr
                                
 NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Friday
after disappointing results from General Electric Co <GE.N> and
Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> illustrated the road to economic
recovery is still bumpy.
                                
 Analysts said investors may have become too optimistic
going into the earnings season, in contrast to the previous
quarter when the bar was set too low. The search for revenue
growth has been a key theme so far after the last two quarters
were characterized by companies' cost cutting.
                                
 Conglomerate GE reported weaker-than-expected revenue and
Bank of America posted a $1 billion loss, reflecting the
struggle businesses and consumers face with managing their
debt.
                                
 Friday's results contrasted sharply with those of JPMorgan
Chase & Co <JPM.N> and Intel Corp <INTC.O> earlier this week,
which breezed past Wall Street forecasts and helped the Dow to
close above 10,000 for two straight days.
                                
 "On one hand, earnings aren't a disaster, but on the other
hand it's not anything that's propelling the market
significantly higher, either," said Todd Salamone, vice
president of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
                                
 "The market as a whole has held up these first couple weeks
and there were a lot of concerns it was setting up for a fall
because companies could no longer eke out cost cutting."
                                
 Bank of America's shares fell 4.4 percent to $17.30, and GE
dropped 4.2 percent to $16.09. For details, see
[ID:nN15485899], [ID:nN16143307]
                                
 The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 68.54 points,
or 0.68 percent, to 9,994.40. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> lost 8.58 points, or 0.78 percent, to 1,087.98. The
Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> gave up 14.78 points, or 0.68
percent, at 2,158.51.
                                
 Further pressuring the market was the Reuters/University of
Michigan Surveys of Consumers, which said its preliminary index
of sentiment for October fell unexpectedly on concerns over
personal finances. The news overshadowed an earlier report that
showed industrial production rose in September.[ID:nN16384321]
                                
 But traders said Friday's decline may push the market
higher next week as investors see an opportunity to jump in.
                                
 "In the options market, the majority of sentiment
indicators are still in a mode that is bullish ... Traders
expect to see more upside surprises (in earnings) than
downside," said Randy Frederick, director of trading and
derivatives at Charles Schwab in New York.
                                
 Among stocks that gained, Google Inc <GOOG.O> rose 4.1
percent to $551.64 after the Web search company reported
earnings and revenue late on Thursday that beat forecasts.
Google eased concerns about the technology sector.
                                
 International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N> shares fell
4.7 percent to $121.97 on a mixed earnings report that failed
to satisfy investors whose expectations had risen along with a
sharp advance in the stock over the past three months.
[ID:nN15266489]
  (Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth
Barry)