Last week, investors reacted to reports that Russia signaled its willingness to negotiate with Ukraine. That’s what Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week. The news about it caused the markets to rise slightly on Friday.
—- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up more than 2% on Friday (Feb. 25), its biggest one-day gain since November 2020.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 34,058.75, up 834.92, or +2.51%.
- The S&P 500 closed at 4,384.65, up 95.95, or +2.24%.
- The NASDAQ closed at 13,694.62, up 221.04, or +1.64%.
—- Crude oil contracts closed lower as investors took profits after a sharp rise on Thursday.
- WTI crude futures were down $1.22, or 1.3%, at $91.59 a barrel, up 1.5% for the week.
- BRENT crude futures were down $1.15, or 1.2%, at $97.93 a barrel, up 4.7% for the week.
—- Gold futures closed below the level of $ 1,900 per ounce after a strong rise on Thursday.
- The gold futures fell $38.7, or 2.01%, at $1,887.6 an ounce, or down 0.6% in this week
- Silver was down 69.3 cents, or 2.8%, at $24.017 an ounce.
- The platinum contract was down $12, or 1.13%, at $1,050.1 per ounce.
- Palladium fell $136.20, or 5.4%, at $2,365.70 an ounce.
—- The U.S. dollar weakened against major currencies as investors sold the dollar as a safe-haven currency.
- The dollar index against the six major currencies in a basket of currencies was down 0.54% to 96.6160.
- The dollar weakened against the yen to 115.59 yen from 115.63 yen.
- The US dollar was lower against the Canadian dollar to 1.2713 Canadian dollars from 1.2814 Canadian dollars.
- The US dollar strengthened against the Swiss franc at 0.9263 francs from 0.9257 francs.
- The euro was higher against the dollar at $1.1266 from $1.1189.
- The pound rose to $1.33410 from $1.3387.
- The Australian dollar strengthened to $0.7232 from $0.7158.