—– The Dow closed lower, posting its biggest weekly percentage drop in months. Investors are worried about the prospect of a recession after central banks around the world are trying to raise interest rates to curb inflation.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 29,888.78, down 38.29, or -0.13%.
- The S&P 500 closed at 3,674.84, up 8.07, or +0.22%.
- The Nasdaq closed at 10,798.35, up 152.25, or +1.43%.
—– Crude oil futures closed lower as investors feared a recession and central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation. This could hurt demand for oil.
- WTI crude futures fell $8.03, or 6.83%, at $109.56 a barrel and ended down 9.2% last week.
- BRENT crude futures fell $6.69, or 5.58%, at $113.12 a barrel and closed 7.3% last week.
—– Gold contracts closed lower as the dollar strengthened the gold contract. A stronger dollar makes gold contracts more expensive for holders of other currencies.
- Gold prices fell $9.3, or 0.5%, to $1,840.6 an ounce. Gold futures fell 1.9% last week.
- Silver was down 29.8 cents, or 1.36%, at $21.587 an ounce.
- The platinum contract was down $20.9, or 2.2%, at $930.2 an ounce.
- Palladium was down $67.80, or 3.6%, at $1,798.70 an ounce.
—– The U.S. dollar strengthened against the major currencies in the money basket. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to continue its accommodative monetary policy, which strongly supported the rise of the U.S. dollar.
- The dollar index against the six major currencies in a basket of currencies rose 1.03% to 104.6960.
- The dollar rose against the yen to 134.96 yen from 132.00.
- The dollar strengthened against the Swiss franc at 0.9704 francs from 0.9638 francs.
- The dollar was higher against the Canadian dollar at 1.3022 Canadian dollars from 1.2928 Canadian dollars.
- The euro fell to $1.0495 from $1.0580.
- The pound fell to $1.2211 from $1.2357.
- The Australian dollar fell to $0.6936 from $0.7064.