Wall St sinks for fourth straight week

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Wall Street ended a fourth  week of losses on a down note yesterday as most buyers left  the market before the weekend on growing fears of another U.S.  recession and destabilization in Europe’s financial system.

Investors already reeling from big losses in growth stocks  were thumped by a dismal outlook from Hewlett-Packard, which  dropped nearly 20 percent, its worst day since the  stock-market crash of 1987.

It was the latest discouraging event in a month full of  bad surprises ranging from the U.S. credit rating downgrade to  a sharp slowdown in world growth. The S&P has lost 13.1  percent so far this month — on track for its worst month  since October 2008. “What I’m seeing right now is a basically a crisis of  confidence, more so than an economic crisis or financial  crisis necessarily at this stage,” said Natalie Trunow, chief  investment officer of equities at Calvert Investment  Management in Bethesda, Maryland, which manages about $14.8  billion.