- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower as investors fear the Federal Reserve (Fed) will have to raise interest rates again to curb inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 32,899.37 points, down 98.60 points or -0.30%.
The S&P 500 index closed at 4,123.34, down 23.53, or -0.57%.
The Nasdaq index closed at 12,144.66, down 173.03, or -1.40%.
- Crude oil futures closed higher for the second straight week as the European Union’s preparations for oil sanctions against Russia increased prospects for tight oil supplies .
WTI crude futures were up $1.51, or 1.4%, at $109.77 a barrel.
BRENT crude futures were up $1.49, or 1.3%, at $112.39 a barrel.
The gold contract closed in the plus thanks to a weaker dollar. However, the prospect of another interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) depressed gold futures contracts for the third week in a row.
The gold futures were up $7.1, or 0.38%, at $1,882.8 per ounce. but dropped about 0.5% this week.
Silver was down 7.6 cents, or 0.34%, at $22.367 an ounce.
The platinum contract was down $17.4, or 1.79%, at $956 an ounce.
Palladium fell $154.20, or 7.1%, at $2,023.20 an ounce.
- The U.S. dollar is weakening against the euro, after it had risen sharply in recent days. The USDX was strengthened by the Fed’s interest rate hike.
The dollar index against the six major currencies in a basket of currencies was down 0.09% to 103.6600.
The euro strengthened against the US dollar at $1.0550 from $1.0519.
The pound fell to $1.2333 from $1.2350.
The Australian dollar fell to $0.7076 from $0.7095.
The dollar strengthened against the yen at 130.57 yen from 130.31 yen.
The dollar strengthened against the Swiss franc at 0.9882 francs from 0.9873 francs.
The US dollar was also stronger against the Canadian dollar at 1.2906 Canadian dollars from 1.2853 Canadian dollars.