U.S. stocks fell on Friday, ending one of the most volatile weeks of the year little changed as economic concerns resurfaced amid rising oil prices, rising unemployment, and a huge quarterly loss at General Motors Corp.

Still, battered financial stocks managed to eke out gains, providing needed support in the final hour of trade, as energy shares turned lower once crude oil trading closed at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"Economic reports haven't been all that good this past week," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment officer at Oaktree Asset Management. "Now that earnings season is largely over, attention is turning back to oil and more fundamental reports."

Crude oil futures initially jumped over $4 to trade above $128 amid fresh concerns over a possible Israeli strike on Iran. Crude eventually shed some of these gains as fears waned, but still closed above $125.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 51 points, or 0.5%, to 11,326, with 20 of its 30 components retreating. Among blue chips, shares of General Motors Corp. slumped 7.6% after the auto maker posted a $15.5 billion loss.

For the week, which saw the Dow plunge on Monday then soar Tuesday and Wednesday and fall again Thursday, the Dow lost just 0.5%.

The broad S&P 500 index found late support from a rebound in financial shares Friday, but still ended down 7 points at 1,260. For the week, the broad index gained 0.2%.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 14 points to finish at 2,310. It finished flat on the week after rising in July.

Among technology shares, Yahoo dipped 0.5% after chairman Roy Bostock, speaking to shareholders at Yahoo's shareholder meeting, again defended its board's handling of Microsoft Corp. failed bid to acquire the Web portal.

Trading volumes showed 1.2 billion shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange and 884 million shares trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Declining issues topped gainers by 16 to 15 on the NYSE, while decliners only marginally topped gainers on the Nasdaq.

Utilities, materials, health care, information technology and telecoms, all gainers in July, led the way lower. The financial sector led the gains, followed by energy.

Jobs shed

Nonfarm payrolls fell by 51,000 in July, the seventh straight month in July, while the unemployment rate jumped to 5.7%, a four-year high, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Since December, 463,000 jobs have been lost, the strongest signal that the economy is in a recession. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected payrolls to shrink by 70,000 and for the unemployment rate to rise to 5.6% from 5.5% in June.

Also, the Institute of Supply Management said its manufacturing index stood at 50.0% in July, above expectations for a 49.5% reading.

Elsewhere, Elan plunged 50% and Biogen Idec shares slid 28% after the companies said their multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri was linked to two new cases of a rare and often fatal brain inflammation.

The drug had been taken off the market briefly after its 2004 Food and Drug Administration approval after three deaths from PML had been linked to the drug. Tysabri was allowed back on the market in 2006 after no other cases had been identified.

Schering-Plough fell 3.2% as the FDA gave it a "not-approvable" letter for Sugammadex, an injection to reverse muscle relaxation during general anesthesia.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  08-01-08 1637ET
  Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.