NEW YORK — Investors got some bad news about the American shopper on Friday, driving down stocks and sending the Dow Jones industrial average to a loss for the week.
Two major U.S. companies — the retail giant Amazon and the credit card processor Visa — both said that the second half of the year was looking more troubled than originally expected. The cautious outlook from two companies so heavily exposed to consumer spending spooked investors, causing the stock market to fall at the open and remain lower throughout the day.