Stocks end week with fall

NEW YORK - Major U.S. stock indexes ended lower Friday as a surprisingly strong report on job gains failed to impress investors.

The market started to slump in late morning trading on news of downed helicopters and dead fighters in eastern Ukraine. Early Friday, Ukrainian government forces attacked pro-Russian insurgents in the region.

All three indexes wavered between gains and losses for most of the day.

On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 2.54 points, or 0.13 percent, to 1,881.14. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 45.98 points, or 0.28 percent, to 16,512.89. The Nasdaq composite dropped 3.55 points, or 0.09 percent, to 4,123.90.

Among the biggest losers was LinkedIn. The online professional networking service fell 8 percent after reporting its largest quarterly loss since going public. Expedia, the online travel site, fell nearly 4 percent, and Pfizer fell 1.3 percent after the drug company's latest offer to buy AstraZeneca was rejected by that company's board.

In the jobs report, the government said employers added 288,000 jobs in April, 70,000 more than expected. The unemployment rate for April plunged to 6.3 percent, the lowest since September 2008.

Among the stocks taking big hits Friday was Madison Square Garden, which fell $3.62, or 6.6 percent, to $51.47. The owner of sports teams and entertainment venues like Radio City Music Hall said its earnings fell by half in its fiscal third quarter, partly due to a management change and a costly delay for a Rockettes production.

Among the gainers was Wynn Resorts, which rose $15.05, or 7 percent, to $221.68 after reporting that its first-quarter net income grew 12 percent. The company cited strong gambling revenues from its growing operations in Macau.

More than halfway through the first-quarter reporting season, earnings for all companies in the S&P 500 are forecast to have grown 1.7 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ, a data provider. That compares with nearly 8 percent last quarter.

Investors sought safety in U.S. Treasurys, pushing bond prices higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.59 percent, near its lowest level of the year. The price of crude oil rose 34 cents to $99.76 per barrel.

In other corporate news, Estee Lauder rose $3.43 - nearly 5 percent, to $75.62 - after reporting quarterly results that beat analysts' estimates. Earnings at the beauty products company jumped 19 percent, helped by strength in emerging markets.