—– The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly higher after a volatile trading session. But the Dow continued its weekly decline for the eighth week in a row. This is the longest decline since April 1932, during the Great Depression. The S&P500 and Nasdaq closed in the red for the seventh straight week, the longest since the dot-com bubble ended in 2001.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 31,261.90, up 8.77, or +0.03%.
The S&P500 index closed at 3,901.36 points, up 0.57 points or +0.01%.
The Nasdaq index closed at 11,354.62, down 33.88, or -0.30%.
—– The crude oil contract closed in the plus. The decisive factor was concern about the tight supply situation for oil.
WTI crude futures were up $1.02, or 0.9%, at $113.23 a barrel.
BRENT crude futures were up 51 cents, or 0.5%, at $112.55 a barrel.
—– The gold contract closed higher as investors bought gold as a safe haven. Meanwhile, U.S. equity markets remain weak amid inflation fears and rising interest rates.
The gold contract rose $0.9, or 0.05%, to $1,842.1 an ounce to close up 1.8% this week after falling for four straight weeks.
Silver fell 23.4 cents, or 1.07%, to $21.674 an ounce.
The platinum contract fell $12.6, or 1.32%, to $941.1 an ounce.
The palladium contract fell $38.70, or 2%, to $1939.70 an ounce.
—– The U.S. dollar strengthened against major currencies in the currency basket as investors bought the greenback as a safe haven amid concerns about the impact of rising inflation.
The dollar index against the six major currencies in a basket of currencies rose 0.41% to 103.1490.
The US dollar strengthened against the yen at 127.80 yen from 127.74 yen.
The dollar strengthened against the Swiss franc at 0.9758 francs from 0.9705 francs.
The dollar was higher against the Canadian dollar at 1.2847 Canadian dollars from 1.2800 Canadian dollars.
The euro was lower against the US dollar at $1.0550 from $1.0603.
The pound fell to $1.2471 from $1.2501.
The Australian dollar weakened to $0.7020 from $0.7063.