More weakness

U.S. stocks are poised for more weakness next week, after a slide in the Nasdaq wiped out hopes that technology shares could pull the market out of the subprime pain felt by financial institutions on Wall Street. "Tech had been the big winner since the August sell-off," said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. "In any type of correction, you're likely to take money out of where you've done well." Stocks experienced another slide on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) finishing off 223 points at 13,042, capping a week of pain that shaved 4.1% from the blue chip index. "We've had a confluence of worries about the dollar, energy prices and subprime problems that's really got investors nervous and they don't want to be hanging around the equity market," said Nolte. Hit by continued weakness among financial stocks, the broad S&P 500 index ( SPX) lost 21 points to 1,453, adding up to a 3.7% drop on the week. Yet most of the bleeding was seen in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) , which fell 2.5% to 2,627 on Friday. For the week, the Nasdaq shed a breathtaking 6.5%. Retail highlights week Next week, the market will turn to the September pending home sales index on Tuesday, October retail sales on Wednesday, and regional manufacturing surveys for November on Thursday, for the latest snapshot on the ailing U.S. economy. "The business surveys will help us figure out who's getting really hurt by the whole housing collapse and who's benefiting from a weak dollar and overseas growth," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. Helping take the pulse of U.S. and global consumers, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Home Depot Inc. (HD) will also report earnings on Tuesday, followed by JC Penney (JCP) on Thursday. Bad economic data may lift market odds that the Federal Reserve will continue lowering interest rates, although Fed chief Ben Bernanke's uncertainty last week in testimony to Congress left some investors concerned. "Back in August, we had the whole financial crisis leading up to the Fed cutting rates and then we were off to the races," said Hinsdale's Nolte. "Now we need another event like that" if the market is going to pull itself up, he said. Inflation data -- the October producer price index on Wednesday and the consumer price index on Thursday -- might hold back hopes about further rate cuts.