NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A suicide bombing outside a U.S. consulate in Pakistan, a weak forecast from wireless telecom provider Sprint and a much lower-than-expected reading on consumer sentiment sent stocks skidding in early trading Friday.

Around 10 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 234.34 to 9,268.46. The Nasdaq composite fell 50.58 to 1,446.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was 27.90 lower at 981.66.

The early losses accelerated when the University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index for June came in at 90.8, well below the 96.6 forecast on economists and the 96.9 reading in May, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

Merrill Lynch put out a negative note on the entire wireless sector, saying that pricing power risks remain. The note followed a late Thursday report out of Sprint (FON: down $4.04 to $10.25, Research, Estimates), which said subscriber growth in its wireless unit will miss forecasts by 10 percent to 15 percent for the year.

On Friday, J.P. Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney both downgraded Sprint's wireless telephone firm unit, Sprint PCS (PCS: down $2.06 to $3.93, Research, Estimates).

Concerns about war in the Mideast continued to weigh on markets. On Friday morning, there was a car suicide bombing outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan that left at least 8 people dead and at least 40 other injured.

Treasurys were sharply higher, pushing the ten-year note yield to 4.82 percent.

In global trade, European markets fell to fresh 8-1/2 month lows Friday, while Asian markets traded lower by the close. Brent crude oil futures rose 1 cent to $24.73 a barrel in London.

April business inventories declined 0.2 percent in April, meeting economists' estimates. Inventories fell a revised 0.4 percent in March.

In addition, industrial production rose 0.2 percent in May, less than the 0.4 percent increase economists expected and April's revised 0.3 percent increase. Capacity utilization was little changed, up 75.5 percent from a revised 75.4 percent the previous month.