( dpa ) - US stocks fell on Friday despite a pledge by President George W Bush to seek a short-term 140-billion-dollar tax cut to help stimulate the flagging US economy.
Bush's backing of legislation to revive the economy did little to dampen investors' of worries that a recession was on the way, as the Standard & Poor's 500 index capped off its worst week in five years.
The S& P 500 fell 8.06 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 1,325.19. The S& P fell 5.4 per cent for the week. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 59.91 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 12,099.30. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index declined by 6.88 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 2,340.02.
"There's still a general malaise in the overall equity market, and even this may not be enough to keep us out of a recession," Michael Mullaney of Fiduciary Trust Company in Boston told Bloomberg News.
Bush urged Congress Friday to quickly come up with legislation he could sign into law to stimulate the economy in the near term, including tax relief of about 1 per cent of the US Gross Domestic Product.
The US economy has suffered at the hand of the crisis in the home subprime mortgage market coupled with an increase in the December unemployment rate and rising energy costs.
In currency markets, the US dollar rose to 68.44 euro cents from 68.27 euro cents on Thursday. The dollar rose to 106.77 Japanese yen from 106.71.
Gold rose by 4.40 dollars to 884.90 dollars per fine ounce.