Markets volatile amid fuss over debt showdown in D.C.

Traders gather on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where jitters over a possible U.S. default and a bad economy were evident.

The word of the day in financial markets: Anxious.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 100 points, its sixth-straight decline, as the United States edged closer to a Tuesday deadline to raise the country’s borrowing limit or risk the prospect of a debt default. The combination of bad economic news and growing worries about a possible default was evident in nearly every measure of investor confidence:

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index had its worst week in a year. The Dow lost 581 points over the past six days. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 stock index fell. The Dow started Friday sharply lower, regained after President Obama said there were many paths to a compromise on raising the debt limit, and briefly turned positive before finishing down 96.87 points to close at 12,143.24. The S&P 500 index lost 8.39 points to 1,292.28, and the Nasdaq composite fell 9.87 to 2,756.38.

The Dow is still up 4.9 percent for the year, but it is down 667 points, or 5.2 percent, from its highest point of the year, which it reached April 29.