Wall St. falls, VIX on track for third straight weekly gain

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Friday, with major indexes on track to snap five-week winning streaks, as energy shares again led the market down.

Energy stocks were pressured after the Treasury department announced new sanctions against Russia. The sanctions, designed to punish the country for its intervention in Ukraine, affect oil and defense industries and further limit major Russian banks' access to U.S. debt and equity markets.

The sector <.SPNY> fell 1.4 percent, continuing a downtrend that has taken the group down 3.6 percent this week. Exxon Mobil fell 1.2 percent to $95.85 while Chevron Corp was down 0.9 percent at $122.67.

"The sanctions are factoring into the market, and there seem to be some people using this as an excuse to sell, but we've been buying energy stocks in this market. We see it as attractive overall," said John Traynor, chief investment officer of People?s United Wealth Management in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The CBOE Volatility index <.VIX>, a measure of investor anxiety, rose 9.2 percent to 13.98. The so-called "fear index" has risen almost 16 percent this week, its third straight weekly advance, though it is well below its long-term average of 20.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was falling 80.5 points, or 0.47 percent, to 16,968.5, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was losing 12.67 points, or 0.63 percent, to 1,984.78 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was dropping 24.65 points, or 0.54 percent, to 4,567.16.

The largest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange was Noranda Aluminum , rising 26.89 percent, while the largest percentage decliner was Hyperdynamics Corp , down 13.14 percent.

Among the most active stocks on the NYSE were Bank of America , up 1.24 percent to $16.78; Sprint Corp , up 6.32 percent to $6.99 and Petrobras , down 6.30 percent to $16.52.

On the Nasdaq, Yahoo Inc , up 3.9 percent to $42.87; Apple Inc , up 0.5 percent to $101.96; and eBay Inc , up 2.2 percent to $51.82, were among the most actively traded.

Declining issues were outnumbering advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,485 to 582, for a 4.27-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,804 issues were falling and 870 advancing for a 2.07-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The broad S&P 500 index was posting 16 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 54 new highs and 29 new lows.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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