—– The Dow Jones Industrial closed up more than 800 points as investors eased concerns about the Federal Reserve’s plans to raise interest rates after the economy signaled a slowdown and commodity prices fell recently.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 31,500.68, up 823.32, or +2.68%.
- The S&P500 closed at 3,911.74 points, up 116.01 points, or +3.06%.
- The Nasdaq closed at 11,607.62, up +375.43, or +3.34%.
—– Crude oil futures closed higher. This was driven by new concerns about tight oil supplies.
- WTI crude futures were up $3.35, or 3.2%, at $107.62 a barrel.
- BRENT crude futures were up $3.07, or 2.8%, at $113.12 a barrel.
—– The gold contract closed higher after the U.S. dollar fell. Recession worries have increased buying pressure on gold as a safe haven.
- The gold contract rose 50 cents, or 0.03%, to $1,830.3 an ounce. However, gold futures fell 0.6% last week.
- Silver futures were up 8.3 cents, or 0.39%, at $21.125 an ounce.
- The platinum contract was down 70 cents, or 0.08%, at $903.7 per ounce.
- The palladium futures were up $30.20, or 1.7%, at $1,854.30 an ounce.
—– The U.S. dollar index weakened against the major currencies in the basket as investors returned to riskier assets such as the stock market and demand for the safe haven dollar declined.
- The dollar index against the six major currencies in a basket of currencies fell 0.23% to 104.1870.
- The dollar was lower against the yen at 135.23 yen from 134.95 yen.
- The dollar was weaker against the Swiss franc to 0.9589 francs from 0.9611 francs.
- The dollar was lower against the Canadian dollar to $1.2919 from CAD 1.3004.
- The euro was higher against the US dollar at $1.0551 from $1.0523.
- The pound rose to $1.2269 from $1.2251.
- The Australian dollar rose to $0.6939 from $0.6893.