Wall Street was lower in afternoon trade Friday after the US Federal Reserve made two injections of cash into the market during the day, one of $19 billion, followed by $16 billion more.
These came on the heels of two separate cash additions into the market on Thursday, totaling $24 billion.
There is some sentiment that the Fed might issue an emergency interest rate cut in response to the current difficulties in the US markets, although some analysts believe the Fed will hold on until September’s scheduled meeting to issue a rate cut.
Others call a cut now “counterproductive”, saying it could weaken the dollar and cause more harm than good.
In early afternoon trade in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.04 percent to 13,132.4, while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 1 percent to 2,530.95 and the S&P 500 was 0.81 percent lower to 1,441.28.
Most of the financial services sector was lower, but Bank of America (NYSE: BAC; TYO: 8648) had added 14 cents to $48.49.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) had dropped 13 cents to $46.77, while JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM; TYO: 8634) fell 33 cents to $43.85.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was $1.36 lower to $60.45 and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) had fallen $3.41 to $178.84.
Mortgage lender Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) dropped $1.65 to $27.01 after saying in a regulatory filing on Thursday that the current trouble in the credit and subprime mortgage markets could hurt its short-term prospects.
Elsewhere, the aerospace sector was also lower.
Honeywell (NYSE: HON) was down $1.18 to $55.60, while Boeing (NYSE: BA; TYO: 7661) fell $1.43 to $96.87.
Among the few gainers in early afternoon trade were chipmaker Intel (NAS: INTC; SEHK: 4335), which had added 25 cents to $24.17.
In the computers sector, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) was up 92 cents to $47.94 and IBM (NYSE: IBM) had gained $1.78 to $112.51.
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) was up 65 cents to $84.25.