NEW YORK - A rally that pushed the Dow industrials to a record may stall this week as signs of an economic slowdown curb the appetite for equities just as the third quarter's earnings season gets under way.
Last week, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average hit a record closing high and an all-time intraday high for three days in a row, in a rally driven by a sharp drop in oil prices and expectations that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates in the near future.
The rally also propelled the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to fresh 5 1/2-year highs more than once last week.
But on Friday, weaker-than-expected September employment data, following a White House forecast for slower GDP growth late on Thursday, brought the rally to a halt and may drag stocks lower in the week ahead, analysts said.
"We had a long run in equities and we're probably due for a sell no matter what the news is," said Elliot Spar, market strategist at Ryan Beck & Co., in Shrewsbury, New Jersey. "If the economy is going to go down, then you have to worry about earnings momentum."
