Stocks sink on Bear Stearns, credit concerns : US Business

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended down sharply on Friday after an emergency plan to secure financing for Bear Stearns Co Inc pushed down financial shares and increased worries about problems in the credit market.

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 194.65 points, or 1.60 percent, to unofficially end at 11,951.09. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 27.34 points, or 2.08 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,288.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC>was down 51.12 points, or 2.26 percent, to close unofficially at 2,212.49.

For the week, the Dow actually rose, ending up 0.5 percent.

But the S&P 500 finished the week down 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq ended unchanged.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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