NEW YORK: US stocks were lower at midday on Friday, with energy shares extending recent losses after the Treasury department announced new sanctions against Russia. The market was on track to break a five-week string of gains.
The S&P energy index was down 1.1 percent and among the day's worst-performing sectors. The group has come under pressure this week, during which it has shed 3 percent as crude oil prices fell. Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips each lost 1 percent.
The sanctions, designed to punish Russia for its intervention in Ukraine, affect oil and defense industries and further limit major Russian banks' access to US debt and equity markets.
Shares of eBay were up 2.7 percent, the most actively traded issue on Nasdaq, though it pared earlier gains of as much as 4.7 percent after the company dismissed market speculation that Google Inc may be preparing to buy a slice of the company.
"There's been a little bit of a selloff over the last couple of days but nothing big. Maybe we're looking to overseas for some word of what's going on over there," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
The S&P 500 was on track for a loss of 0.9 percent for the week so far, which would break a five-week streak of gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 52.91 points, or 0.31 percent, to 16,996.09, the S&P 500 lost 8.63 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,988.82 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 16.82 points, or 0.37 percent, to 4,574.99.
The largest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange was Noranda Aluminum, which jumped 31.37 percent, while the biggest decliner was Hyperdynamics, down 12.16 percent. Among the most active stocks on the NYSE were Sprint, up 5.48 percent to $6.93, and US-listed shares of Petrobras , down 4.20 percent to $16.89.
Nasdaq's most active included Apple, up 0.4 percent to $101.85 and Yahoo, up 2.3 percent to $42.21.
Declining issues were outnumbering advancers on the NYSE by 2,392 to 618, for a 3.87-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,772 issues were falling and 844 advancing for a 2.10-to-1 ratio.
The broad S&P 500 index was posting 16 new 52-week highs and four new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 52 new highs and 26 new lows.
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