US stocks turned sharply lower late in the session Friday. The S&P 500 recorded its worst performance in May since 1962.

On the Week: the DJIA edged 0.6%, the S&P 500 gained 0.2% and the NAS added 1.3%.

On the Day:  The DJIA dropped 122.36 pts, or 1.19%, to close at 10,136.63, the S&P 500 lost 13.65 pts, or 1.24%, to close at 1,089.41, and the NAS tallied up a minus 20.64 pts, or 0.91%, to end the session at 2,257.04.

Data from the US:  Commerce Department showed April was the 1st month since September that consumer spending did not increase, but the largest gain in real disposable income in nearly a year gave hope that spending will resume in coming months.

A separate report showed business activity in the Midwest grew less than expected in May after scaling a five-year high in April. An employment gauge in the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago’s survey slipped.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers showed consumer sentiment rose a bit in May from April, but was about unchanged from levels since February, while the 1 yr inflation expectations index also climbed to its highest since October 2008.

Energy shares ranked among the biggest losers, a day after the S&P energy index posted up its largest gain in 14 months. The S&P energy index lost 2%. .

Apple Inc. was among the few bright spots, rising 1.5% at US$257.16/shr after the iPad  tablet computer debuted outside the United States and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch raised its price target on the stock by US$25 to US$325.

Gold prices posted a fractional gain to settle pit trade at US$1212.20 oz, while Silver prices settled 0.2% lower at US$18.42 oz.

Nat Gas prices were strong. Specifically, the commodity closed pit trade priced at US$4.35 per MMBtu, up 1.3%.

Crude Oil prices did not recover from their afternoon fall as it closed pit trade with a 0.8% loss at US$73.92 bbl. That made for a modest pullback from the 8% rise that Crude Oil prices recorded during the course of the 2 preceding sessions, but even those gains could not prevent the worst monthly performance for Crude Oil prices since December 2008, the Crude Oil futures prices fell 14% in May.

The weaknesses weighed on the CRB Commodity Index all through the month of May. The CRB Commodity Index finished the month 8.2% lower than where it started, making it the CRB’s worst monthly performance in 16 months

Advancing Sectors: (None)

Declining Sectors: Financials (-2.1%), Energy (-2.0%), Materials (-1.7%), Industrials (-1.5%), Consumer Discretionary (-1.4%), Telecom (-1.0%), Tech (-0.9%), Health Care (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.4%)

Unchanged: Utilities

Volume and Breadth: Volume was light with about 9.06B/shrs traded on the NYSE, the AMEX, and the NAS, below last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65b/shrs. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by about 2+ to 1, and on the NAS, decliners beat advancers by about 2+ to 1 too.

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