SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. shares plunged nearly 10 Friday after the Internet search leader's second-quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations.

Management said economic turmoil in the United States and parts of Europe appears to be causing consumers to click less frequently on the ads that generate virtually all its profits.

That unnerved already jittery investors, although Google managers said they expect the Mountain View-based company will thrive even if the economy weakens further.

Google's stock price dropped $52.12, or 9.8 percent, to finish at $481.32, leaving it below $500 for the first time in three months.

The red flags raised after the bell Thursday included a dramatic slowdown in the company's hiring pace and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's description of the economy as "challenging." Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, even participated in the company's conference call for the first time to discuss business conditions.

"That was a tip-off," said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown. "Economic sluggishness has entered the discussion at Google, more so than we have ever heard."

Google earned $1.25 billion, or $3.92 per share, during the three months ended in June. That represented a 35 percent increase from net income of $925 million, or $2.93 per share, at the same time

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup has become the latest big bank to quell Wall Street's worries about a financial sector implosion, posting a $2.5 billion second-quarter loss that was smaller than expected.

Citi rose nearly 8 percent Friday and helped lift other financial stocks, having joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. in convincing investors that the prognosis for the sector, while gloomy, may not be as dire as the market feared.

But it's hard to get too enthusiastic about clearing a low bar. It was Citi's third straight quarterly loss and neither JPMorgan nor Wells Fargo managed to notch a profit gain compared to last year. Meanwhile, the brokerage Merrill Lynch & Co. reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss. And next week, Wachovia Corp. and Washington Mutual Inc. are anticipated to reveal losses, too, with Bank of America Corp. expected to report a steep profit decline.

"I don't think anyone's breathing too easily right now," said Prakash Shimpi, who works in the risk management practice at Towers Perrin. Determining the dollar value of certain assets backed by debt is still a tricky process, he said, even a year after the crisis began.

Citigroup, the nation's largest banking company by assets, lost the equivalent of 54 cents per share in the April-June period. In the same timeframe last year, the bank earned $6.23 billion, or $1.24 per share.

The shortfall was tamer than the 66-cent-per-share loss that analysts, on average, were expecting,