Analysts attributed the declines to Wall Street's unwillingness to make any bets in a market that appears capable of only falling farther.

"There is just no good news out there right now, and people are not willing to get involved in the market going into a weekend," said Bryan Piskorowski, market commentator at Prudential Securities. "You've got a buyers' strike going on."

The declines also gave the three major indexes their ninth straight losing week ­ and reflected trends that have been dogging stocks for months now.

Investors, fed up with accounting scandals and concerned that business isn't recovering strongly or quickly enough, have been unloading shares for fear stock prices will fall further.