"There are so many reasons for investors to be worried. They were worried there would be more terror attacks, and there has been one. They have been worried about the economy and earnings, and there is very good reason," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany Corp.

The Dow ended a heavily traded session down 28.59, or 0.3 percent, at 9,474.21. But the loss was moderate compared with an early drop of 241.81 and triple-digit declines on Tuesday and Thursday.

The broader market was mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.29, or 0.2 percent, to 1,007.27.

But the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.88, or 0.5 percent, to 1,504.74, recovering from an early loss of 51.42.

The market indexes also suffered their fourth consecutive down week. The Dow fell 115.46, or 1.2 percent, the S&P lost 20.26, or 2.0 percent, and the Nasdaq sank 30.74, or 2.0 percent.

"You can't blame investors for being very, very demoralized. ... The stock market is going down and their nest eggs are shrinking. There are plenty of reasons to sell ­ first, to stop the bleeding," Johnson said.

Much of Wall Street's weakness Friday was attributable to worries triggered by an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, where a suicide attacker drove a bomb-laden car into a guard post. The attack killed 11 people and injured many more, including one U.S. Marine guard and five Pakistani employees of the United States.

Analysts said the market was able to narrow its losses due to a technical factor called short covering, rather than investors suddenly becoming less worried about the economy or developments overseas. In short covering, investors are forced to buy stock to replace shares that they borrowed earlier and sold on the expectation of further declines.

But analysts don't expect the buying to accelerate or even to continue at all.

"Unless you get some good news next week, I don't think there is going to be any follow through," said Barry Berman, head trader for Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee.

Wall Street was disturbed by a decline in consumer confidence, worried that it means consumers are curbing their spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy. The University of Michigan's mid-month consumer sentiment index for June showed a big drop to 90.8 from 96.9 in May, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Downgrades of telecommunication and wireless stocks by various brokerages, including Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch, were another weight on the market. Qualcomm dropped $2.49 to $29.91.

Sprint PCS plunged 26.5 percent, down $1.59 at $4.40, after saying Thursday that it expects to add fewer new customers than expected this year and that annual revenue will also be weaker than had been anticipated.

Lucent fell 7 cents to $2.73, after warning Thursday of lower-than-expected third quarter revenues.

There were some winners, however, particularly in the long-battered tech sector. Microsoft rose $1.03 to $55.25, and Apple Computer advanced 56 cents to $20.10.

Investors have been unloading shares for four weeks amid negative news about earnings and the economy, worries about tensions overseas as well as questionable business ethics and corporate accounting.

The effect of the selling on the market's indexes is painfully clear. In four weeks, the Dow has plummeted 878.87, or 8.5 percent. The S&P has dropped 99.32, or 9.0 percent, and the Nasdaq has lost 236.65, or 13.6 percent.

The indexes are also near the September lows that followed the terrorist attacks. The S&P is closest, standing just 41.47 points from its Sept. 21 low of 965.80.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers slightly more than to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was heavy at 1.86 billion shares, up from 1.67 billion Thursday.

The Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, rose 3.09, or 0.7 percent, to 459.07. For the week, the Russell fell 11.44, or 2.4 percent.

Overseas, market fell sharply Friday. Japan's Nikkei stock average declined 2.0 percent. In Europe, France's CAC-40 fell 2.9 percent, Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 3.0 percent, and Germany's DAX index plunged 3.7 percent.