US stocks finished lower in Friday for the third day in a row last week, on disappointing economic data, while Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) lackluster results dented optimism about technology spending.
To the figures, the Dow Jones industrial lost 42 points to 9,665. The S&P500 Index dropped 6 points to 1,044 and the NASDAQ fell 17 points to 2,091.
In economic news: The National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales fell by 2.7% in August from July, but were up 3.4% from a year ago. The result finally bucked the trend of the past four months which has seen sales jumped 15.2%.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders fell 2.4% in August after rising by 4.8% in July.
In company news: Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) shares lost 17.04% to $68.91, after the blackberry maker gave an outlook that missed expectations – the news prompted analysts to downgrade the stock.
KB Home (NYSE:KBH) shares fell 8.52% to $16.96, after the home builder reported a third-quarter loss but said company-wide net orders increased in the quarter.
Lowe’s Companies (NYSE:LOW) shares lost 1.59% to $21.05, as Raymond James downgraded the company to "outperform" from a "strong buy," saying Lowe’s was likely to post weaker same-store sales. Sara Lee (NYSE:SLE) shares rose 6.36% to $11.21, after Unilever agreed to pay $1.87 billion for Sara Lee's personal care brands like Sanex and Radox.
Checking the NASDAQ Top 100: The best performer overnight was Intuitive Surgical, adding 6.4% to $257.50, also on the rise were Dish Network and Starbucks. On the downside, Research In Motion was the worst performer, followed by Foster Wheeler and Dell also closed lower.
