NEW YORK, July 13: Blue-chip stocks tumbled on Friday, wrapping up their worst week since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, as a drop in US consumer sentiment, a sour call on Home Depot Inc. and fears over financial shenanigans rattled investors.

US Treasuries climbed while the dollar ended a bleak week with more declines. NYMEX crude oil futures settled near eight-week highs.

The bias is still on the sell side, James Volk, director of institutional trading at D.A. Davidson and Co., said of the US stock market. But at some point the market will hit bottom, so let’s hope that we get lucky soon.

The market endured a seesaw session. Stocks rose at the open after a rosy outlook from Dell Computer Corp. and a 14 percent increase in earnings from General Electric Co. But the rally faded as a surprise tumble in consumer sentiment fed worries that consumer spending, which supports about two-thirds of the economy, may wane in coming months.

If the consumer slows, then the economy may be a little worse than expected and that will cause some nervousness, said Barry Hyman, chief investment strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average .DJI> fell 117 points, or 1.33 per cent, to 8,684.53, after opening higher and then dropping 2 per cent. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended down 5.98 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 921.39.

The Nasdaq Composite ended off 0.94 point, or 0.07 per cent, at 1,373.49. The technology-packed index had rallied more than 2 per cent on Dell’s upbeat outlook and then dipped in and out of negative ground.

Doubts over corporate credibility, fears of another terror attack and apprehension over the second-quarter earnings season are roiling Wall Street. The S&P 500 lost 6.85 per cent and the Dow sank 7.4 per cent during the week both suffering their largest weekly drops since the stock market reopened following the September attacks. The Nasdaq sank 5.2 per cent, its largest weekly decline since April.

Stocks pared gains early in the day after a report showed that US consumer sentiment sank in early July as the stock market drubbing soured Americans’ expectations. The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to its lowest level since November 2001 in July, down to 86.5 from 92.4 in June.

Home Depot dragged on the Dow with a $2.31 drop to $29.09. The home improvement retailer sank to $28.40 earlier in the day, hitting its lowest level since October 1998. Merrill Lynch downgraded the retailer, citing tough competition from the company’s main rival, Lowe’s Cos., and sluggish sales.

Duke Energy Corp. kept worries over corporate credibility alive. The utility, which plunged $3.20 to $24.75, said it received subpoenas from federal agencies requesting documents rela-ting to its trading activities.—Reuters