(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)

US stocks finished with sharp weekly and monthly losses as persistent banking fears continued to haunt investors. Weak economic data and disappointing corporate profits also pressurized stocks.

For the week, Dow was down 302.74 points or 4.11%. S&P fell 34.96 points or 4.54%, while Nasdaq Composite settled with a weekly loss of 63.39 points or 4.4%.

The Dow posted a monthly loss of 11.72%. S&P shed 10.99% while Nasdaq Composite fell 6.68% in February.

Early on Friday, the embattled US bank Citigroup (NYSE: C) said that it'll convert preferred securities into common stock, which in turn will increase government's ownership in bank to 36% without any additional investment. According to the plan, Citi will offer to exchange common stock for up to $27.5 billion of its existing preferred securities and trust preferred securities at a conversion price of $3.25 a share. The U.S. government, which currently holds $45 billion of Citigroup's preferred stock, will match this exchange up to a maximum of $25 billion face value of its preferred stock at the same conversion price.

Meanwhile, financial stocks also came under pressure during the week after FDIC said that number of "problem" banks jumped to 252 in the fourth quarter compared to 171 in previous quarter.

Economic data pointed to further deterioration in housing and job market. In a report released on Thursday, Commerce Department said that sales of new homes fell 10.2% in January to a record-low seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000. According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales fell 5.3% in January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.49 million units from a rate of 4.74 million in December.  Also, the Mortgage Bankers Association said that its market index of mortgage application volume fell 15.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week of February 20th.A release by Department of Labor on Thursday showed number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits jumped 36,000 to 667,00 in the week ending February 21. Continuing claims for the week ending February 24 climbed 114,000 to a record 5.11 million. According to Department of Commerce, orders for durable goods fell 5.2% in January. The Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment fell to 56.3 in February from 61.2 in previous month. According to a Commerce Department, US economy contracted at a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 6.2%, much worse than the initial estimate of 3.8% decline.

Dismal quarterly earnings added to the gloom. Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR), DreamWorks Animation Inc. (NYSE: DWA), Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) reported a sharp fall in quarterly profits. Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN) and Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (NYSE: DDR) posted loss in their latest quarters.Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) registered a jump in quarterly earnings.

While Wall Street welcomed the dividend cut at J.P Morgan (NYSE: JPM), the move to slash dividend at General Electric (NYSE: GE) wasn't received by market. JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) reduced the quarterly cash dividend on common stock to 5 cents a share from 38 cents, in order to save $5 billion a year in cash while General Electric Co. cut its quarterly dividend by 10 cents a share from 31 cents.

Looking ahead, the coming week is going to be a busy one on the front of economic data. Monday will see the release of personal income, personal spending, construction spending for the month of January and February's ISM manufacturing index. Pending home sales and auto sales are scheduled for release on Tuesday. February's ADP employment report, ISM services index and Fed's Beige Book are due for released on Wednesday. Weekly initial claims and February's factory orders will be reported Thursday. Investors would be especially looking forward to monthly employment report, due on Friday.

On the earnings front, AIG (NYSE: AIG), EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS), DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH), MBIA (NYSE: MBI), Mindray Medical (NYSE: MR), Home Inns & Hotels are (NASDAQ: HMIN) are scheduled to report their quarterly results.   

Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.