Dow off 120; worst week in 4 years

In these nervous-making times, markets can get extra jittery on a Friday afternoon. Weekends mean two full days to ruminate and given what's happened to stocks those ruminations are unlikely to be positive. Better to sell off some stuff now rather than risk the Asian markets getting flaky again on Monday and leaving the U.S. markets stuck with a weak hand. So on a day that had the Dow down 50 or 60 points for much of the session, the final hour took a turn for the worse and closed down 120. Just too much uncertainty out there - and too much time to think. The Dow is at 12,114, which is down 5 percent from the recent highs. The next guidepost analysts will talk about is the 12,000 mark. It's a kind of psychological barrier, but it's looking pretty precarious. If the market slips below 12,000, don't be surprised if the thing keeps falling for a while. As for local stocks, most everything was down by percentages generally consistent with the major indexes. Amgen, which took a big hit yesterday because of questions concerning its anti-anemia drug, was up 0.08 percent. Disney was down 1.28 percent and Guess, which had held up reasonably well this week, took it on the chin, down 2.33 percent. NYT