Financial Markets: The hits just keep on coming

Wall Street limped to a six-week losing streak Friday, its longest since 2002, reflecting a gathering sentiment among investors that the economic recovery is going awry.

The losses, which pushed the Dow Jones industrial average below 12,000, have piled up after an exuberant eight-month run in which corporate profits and share prices soared. Retirement accounts of ordinary Americans began to look healthy again. The unemployment rate remained high but started to inch down.


Now, momentum from that stretch is fading fast, posing a headache for the Obama administration as it seeks to tout its record on the economy.

Recent data appear to confirm the turn for the worse. The jobless rate is rising. Housing prices have fallen below their financial-crisis lows. Gridlock in Washington over the nation’s debt is tying the hands of policymakers. Europe’s fiscal problems seem to have no solution in sight.

Given the news, many Americans no longer feel confident that the nation’s economic problems will work themselves out, analysts said.

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