Stock prices ended another volatile week on Friday with sizable losses. The declines came after the Commerce Department reported the biggest monthly drop in retail sales during October.
A sharp sell-off in the last half hour sent the Dow Jones industrial average down by 337.94 points to 8497.31. The NASDAQ composite index lost 79.85 points to 1516.85 and the S&P 500 stock index dropped 38.00 points to 873.29.
For the week, the NASDAQ was down 7.9 percent, the Dow fell 5.0 percent and the S&P 500 lost 4.2 percent.
Among San Diego stocks: Price Smart fell $1.19 to $13.47; Sempra Energy was down $2.38 to $42.09; and, Qualcomm lost $1.88 to $32.94.
A sharp decline in auto sales - down 5.5 percent - pushed overall retail spending down 2.8 percent last month. The numbers were also impacted by a sharp decline in oil prices.
Oil followed stocks lower again on Friday. Crude closed at $57.04 a barrel, down $1.20. For the week oil was down 6.6 percent.
