Stocks Slide After 5 Days of Gains as Oil Falls

Wall Street largely brushed off the idea of a more confident consumer Friday, taking a breather after five days of gains as oil tumbled.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 22.07 points, or 0.2%, at 9605.41, while the S&P 500 tracked down 1.41 points, or 0.1%, to 1042.73. The Nasdaq Composite edged down 3.12 points, or 0.2%, to 2080.90.

Stocks slipped in quiet trading Friday after the recent string of gains and a drop in oil prices. Crude slid 3.7 percent, which hurt energy stocks like Exxon Mobil Corp. That overshadowed a rosier profit forecast from FedEx Corp. and a government report on improving sales at wholesalers.


Separately, the Commerce Department reported that sales at the wholesale level rose in July by the biggest amount in more than a year, even though inventories fell for a record 11th straight month.


"You certainly can't argue with the market taking a pause every so often and selling into good news, but I think the direction is still further higher for anything that's tied to the consumer in the short term," says Michael James, managing director at Wedbush Morgan Securities.