The Goldman Sachs Group and MetLife dragged a gauge of financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index to its lowest level since 1992.
In the broader market, interest-sensitive stocks in banking and financial services dragged large-cap gauge S&P 500 down 1.80% to 1324.
It is essentially one giant touch screen on which iPad-generation drivers can drag and drop instruments, digital gauges and other information displays.
Microsoft, which fell 47 cents, or 0.9percentto to $53, was a drag on all three market gauges as investors awaited a federal judge's decision on the Microsoft antitrust case.
Cigna on Friday posted higher quarterly net income but lost members and failed to accurately gauge medical inflation, dragging its stock down as much as 8 percent.
We note here that Ellenberger [3] interpreted these wide-gauge tracks and drag marks as made by a swimming animal, an interpretation we disagree with based on the strong registration of the pes and metatarsus on the substrate (which indicates the animal was supporting its body weight), the regularity of the footfall pattern, and the inferred shallow water in the riverbed [11].
Falling housing prices have dragged down broader price gauges, as well.
C1 War Fears Drive Down Stocks The first quarter ended on a sour note for stocks as concerns that a longer-than-expected conflict in Iraq would slow economic growth dragged the three main gauges down more than 1.7percentt.
[C2.] Stocks Slide, Led by Microsoft The three main stock gauges slumped, dragged down by declines in financial service and bank stocks and by a big decline in Microsoft.
Suspended, floating, pressing buttons, checking gauges, she moves with the slow drag of a weightless world.
