U.S. stocks dropped, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a fourth straight weekly loss, as a deeper-than-estimated slide in consumer confidence added to concern the economic recovery will be delayed.

CIT Group Inc., the century-old lender that trades in the bond market as if it may fail, slid 18 percent on concern the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. won’t guarantee its bond sales. Chevron Corp. helped lead the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower as oil completed its worst weekly drop since January and the company said the weaker dollar was slashing profit. Technology shares rose, limiting the market’s slide, following analyst upgrades of Yahoo! Inc. and MEMC Electronic Materials Inc.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.4 percent to 879.13 at 4:08 p.m. in New York and lost 1.9 percent over the past five days, capping its longest weekly losing streak since March. The Dow declined 36.65, or 0.5 percent, to 8,146.52. Less than 7 billion shares changed hands on all U.S. exchanges, the slowest trading day since Jan. 2. Equities extended their declines as the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer confidence trailed economist estimates.

(Bloomberg.com)