The three major US stock indexes are down daily and weekly.
The Small Cap Russell 2000 ended the year at its lowest so far.
Crude oil prices are falling before rising, even after US President Donald Trump temporarily eased sanctions on Russian oil to ease supply concerns.
“We’ve seen volatility in the energy market that rivals any two-week cycle in cryptocurrency history. So, it’s hard to say it’s driven by fundamentals,” said Paul Nolte, market strategist and strategist at Murphy & Sylvest in Elmhurst. “It’s a very emotional market, so it doesn’t really make sense to try to trade, let alone invest in this market.”
“You just have to sit back and wait for things to unfold and be resolved, and that could happen over the course of a couple of weeks,” Nolte added.
First-month WTI crude futures settled at $98.71 per barrel, up 3.11% on the day. Brent rose 2.67% to $103.14, above $100 a barrel for the first time since August 2022. Trump’s pledge to hit Iran harder next week comes alongside reports that fighting has spread to Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and the Iranian-backed countries of Umid and Osman. A near-term solution. Trump’s comments have prompted Iran to tighten its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, which holds a fifth of the world’s oil. On Thursday, the International Energy Agency said the war would cause the biggest disruption to the world’s oil supply. The Commerce Department’s sharp downward revision to fourth-quarter GDP growth drowns out a flood of disappointing economic indicators. The personal consumption expenditure report showed little movement in the US Federal Reserve’s top inflation gauge, while other data showed weak demand for durable goods. Despite soft economic data, the US Federal Reserve was expected to leave its key interest rate unchanged at next week’s monetary policy meeting. With rising oil prices threatening to further dampen inflation, the prospect of near-term rate cuts is diminishing. “Inflation remains high, and with the potential for energy prices to finally move down the pipeline, the Fed is likely to hold off longer,” said Peter Cardello, market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 119.38 points, or 0.26%, to 46,558.47, the S&P 500 lost 40.43 points, or 0.61%, to 6,632.19 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 206,632.19. 22,105.36.
Among the S&P 500’s 11 largest sectors, technology stocks lost the largest percentage. Utilities enjoyed the largest percentage gain.
Amid concerns about credit quality, the S&P 500 financial sector fell 3.4% on the week. Design software maker Adobe fell 7.6% after it was announced that longtime CEO Shantanu Narine would step down after a successor was named, renewing concerns about potential AI disruption. Meta platforms fell 3.8% after a report that the social media behemoth has delayed the release of its artificial intelligence model “Avocado” until at least May.
Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.9-to-1 ratio. There were 71 new highs and 185 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 1,714 stocks advanced and 2,966 declined as issues outnumbered emerging issues by a 1.73-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 13 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 33 new highs and 193 new lows.
U.S. trading volume was 18.12 billion shares, compared to the 19.84 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
(Reporting by Johan M. Cherian, Utkarsh Hathi in Bangalore, Stephen Clapp in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel, Devika Seemanath and David Gregorio)
