Stocks Lose More Ground

NEW YORK (AP)  -- Stocks closed lower again today with the Dow industrials posting their eighth straight decline.
   
The Dow Jones industrial average finished with a loss of 128 points at 8,451 and down 1,817 points on the week. Declining issues on the New York Stock Exchange led losers nearly 2-1 on volume of 10.9 billion shares. The Nasdaq composite index was actually up 4 points at the 1,649 level, but posted a loss of 298 for the week. Roughly 4.1 billion shares traded on the tech-heavy exchange. And the S&P 500 dropped 10 points, closing at 899, down 199 points for the week.

While the session was a volatile one, the losses today were nowhere as steep as yesterday's
   
The Dow plunged nearly 700 points within minutes of opening this morning and then moved into positive territory with a gain of more than 100 points shortly before the closing bell.
   
Frozen credit markets and a loss of confidence in the world's financial system have caused the Dow to drop 21 percent in just 10 trading days.