Stocks Finish with Weekly Loss

U.S. stocks slumped on Friday, hit by a batch of disappointing earnings results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 140.19 points, or nearly 0.9%, to finish at 16,361.46. The blue-chip index shed 0.3% for the week. The S&P 500 fell 15.21 points, or 0.8%, to close at 1,863.40. The benchmark lost 0.1% for the week. The Nasdaq Composite slid 72.78 points, or nearly 1.8%, to end at 4,075.56. The tech-heavy index lost 0.5% for the week.

U.S. Consumer sentiment in April hit its best level in nine months, according to the latest Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey, finishing at 84.1 compared to 80.0 in March and 73.2 in October 2013.

The Justice Department and Citigroup Inc. plan to meet next month in the opening salvo of multibillion-dollar settlement talks aimed at ending probes into how the bank handled shoddy mortgage-backed securities, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bank of America Corp’s former finance chief, Joe Price, has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a New York lawsuit that accused the bank and its former executives of misleading investors during the lender’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.