Stocks fall as market awaits data

Associated Press

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NEW YORK – Stocks fell Friday as investors with little news to trade on after Thursday's pullback kept selling ahead of economic figures due next week.

Investors seemed to be looking at corporate news as they awaited reports on existing home sales and durable goods set to arrive next week, but found few reasons to buy.

The market's decline follows a sell-off Thursday that left the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 140 points, or 1.15 percent. Investors worried about a weaker-than-expected reading on regional manufacturing from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia as well as another drop in the Conference Board's monthly index of leading economic indicators.

"I think what really still seems to be dragging the market down are some of the those manufacturing numbers," said Ryan Detrick, strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, referring to the Philadelphia Fed number as well as another regional manufacturing report from the New York Fed last week. "It just shows that the fears that the U.S. economy is in recession are continuing to dominate."

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