NEW YORK — Apple Inc. shares slumped Friday, helping to drag down the stock market. A lack of progress in federal budget talks also discouraged investors.
Apple’s stock dropped after the launch of the iPhone 5 in Beijing failed to draw the long lines of customers that showed up for previous versions of the iPhone, according to news reports. Analysts at UBS cut their earnings estimates and price target for Apple, which fell $19.90, or 3.8 percent, to close at $509.79.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 5.87 points to close at 1,413.58, while the techheavy Nasdaq composite sank 20.83 points to 2,971.33. Apple is the biggest stock in both indexes.
The Dow, which doesn’t include Apple, fell 35.71 points to 13,135.01. All three stock-market measures ended the week with a loss.
Falling stocks outpaced rising ones on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was slightly weaker than average at 3.2 billion shares.
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met Thursday to discuss a budget deal to avoid a collection of higher taxes and government spending cuts scheduled to start Jan. 1. There were no signs of progress, however, and Boehner returned home Friday to Ohio.
Investors remain confident the two sides will reach a deal soon, said Todd Morgan, a founder of Bel Air Investment Advisors in Los Angeles. But the more time it takes, the more anxious they get.
“People want to move ahead and get past this,” Morgan said. “The uncertainty around it is what’s making people nervous.”
The Labor Department said a steep fall in gasoline prices pushed down a measure of consumer prices last month. The consumer price index edged down 0.3 percent in November from October, as gas prices sank 7.4 percent, the biggest drop in nearly four years. Consumer prices have risen 1.8 percent over the past year.
The report helped nudge up prices for U.S. government debt, pushing yields down. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 1.70 percent from 1.73 percent late Thursday. When inflation is weak, it suggests that interest rates are unlikely to jump, and bond prices are unlikely to drop, anytime soon.
Asian markets rose after HSBC said manufacturing in China is picking up. Its index for manufacturing in December rose to 50.9, a slight increase from the previous month.
Adobe shares jumped 6 percent after the maker of Photoshop editing software and other applications reported results that beat analysts’ expectations. More subscribers for its online Creative Cloud service helped drive revenue and earnings higher. Adobe’s stock gained $2.03 to $37.56.
Business, Pages 28 on 12/15/2012