YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Participants made a concerted push against stocks Friday, leaving the major indices to end the week on a down note and log their first weekly loss since the start of the month. Weakness was widespread as a large batch of better-than-expected earnings results and an improved rate of existing home sales were shrugged off.

A pair of positive earnings surprises from Microsoft (MSFT 28.02, +1.43) and Amazon.com (AMZN 118.49, +25.04) helped the Nasdaq get a leg up on its counterparts in the first few minutes of action. Shares of MSFT made their way to a fresh 15-month high, while shares of AMZN hit new record highs, which helped drive the Nasdaq to a gain of more than 1%. Their respective strength also helped the tech sector (-0.3%) limit losses and retailers net a strong gain (+1.4%) as weakness in the broader market spread and knocked the Nasdaq from its perch.

Sellers took all 10 major sectors in the S&P 500 into the red as they dismissed a raft of better-than-expected earnings from the likes of American Express (AXP 34.58, -1.86), Honeywell (HON 38.26, -0.27) Schlumberger (SLB 65.20, -3.40), and Broadcom (BRCM 28.50, -2.23). In turn, eight of the sectors settled with losses in excess of 1%.

Materials stocks made up the worst performing sector. They dropped 2.1% as a confluence of broader market weakness and a stronger dollar made commodities look less attractive. With the Dollar Index advancing 0.5%, the CRB Commodity Index fell 0.8%.

Oil prices were a considerable drag on the CRB. Oil prices settled 0.8% lower at $80.50 per barrel. That helped take the energy sector to a 2.0% loss.

Fed Chairman Bernanke spoke about financial system reform at a conference this morning, but he didn't offer any new insight or make any original statements, so the comments had no real affect on stocks.

The only item on the economic calendar was existing home sales data for September. Home sales climbed to an annualized rate of 5.57 million from 5.09 million the month before. The upturn was stronger than had been expected, given that the consensus forecast called for an annualized sales rate of 5.35 million units in September.

Advancing Sectors: (None)
Declining Sectors: Materials (-2.1%), Energy (-2.0%), Utilities (-1.7%), Industrials (-1.7%), Financials (-1.6%), Telecom (-1.3%), Consumer Staples (-1.1%), Health Care (-1.1%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.7%), Tech (-0.3%)DJ30 -109.13 NASDAQ -10.82 NQ100 -0.5% R2K -2.0% SP400 -1.3% SP500 -13.31 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 609/2.45 bln/2040 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 736/1.28 bln/2284