A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) March 22, 2016.
Reuters
US stocks snapped a five-week win streak on 24 March before the long
Easter weekend. After paring sharp losses, stocks closed little-changed
from the previous session. The industrial and financial sectors weighed
heavily.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 13.14 points, or 0.1%, to settle at 17,515.73. Caterpillar Inc, which rose 2.13%, and IBM Corp, up 1.77%, were the lead gainers of the blue-chip index. Goldman Sachs, down 0.66%, and UnitedHealth, which fell 0.92%, were the leading decliners. According to MarketWatch, the Dow had gone down by more than 100 points earlier in the session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 13.14 points, or 0.1%, to settle at 17,515.73. Caterpillar Inc, which rose 2.13%, and IBM Corp, up 1.77%, were the lead gainers of the blue-chip index. Goldman Sachs, down 0.66%, and UnitedHealth, which fell 0.92%, were the leading decliners. According to MarketWatch, the Dow had gone down by more than 100 points earlier in the session.
The Nasdaq Composite closed up 4.64 points, or 0.1%, to end at 4,773.50. CNBC
reported that Amazon rallied 2.3% and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology
ETF (IBB) managed to reclaim earlier gains to settle up 0.48%. Apple,
which slumped 0.4%, contributed to losses.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.77 points, ending at 2,035.94,
despite six of its 10 main sectors closed higher. The financial sector
dropped 0.7% and industrials dipped 0.3%. Gains were led by the telecom
sector. According to MarketWatch, the energy sector revealed the biggest
swing, going from the worst-performing sector to finish as the second
best-performing sector as it rose 0.5%.
The stock benchmarks snapped a five-week win streak, with
the S&P 500 dropping 0.7% and both the Dow and the Nasdaq dipping
0.5%. US markets are closed Friday, 25 March for Good Friday as part of
the Easter weekend.
Oil prices were able to pare down earlier losses after news
that the number of US drilling rigs declined by 15. Crude oil settled
down 0.8% at $39.46 a barrel. CNBC reported that the US dollar index
pared gains after reaching its highest in over a week, but ended its
first positive week in four with a surge of more than 1%. The euro held
around $1.118 and the yen was at 112.81 yen against the greenback.
"You've got a combination of a pivot in a long-term run in
both the dollar and oil and that's going to pressure equities," Art
Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities said.
Gold futures for April delivery settled 0.2% lower at
$1,221.60 an ounce, dropping 2.61% for the week, its worst performance
since 6 November. Meanwhile, treasury yields ended higher, with the
2-year yield near 0.88% and the 10-year yield around 1.9%.
"The real reason for the market coming down in the last
couple of days is the Fed rhetoric," Peter Cardillo, chief market
economist at First Standard Financial, told CNBC. "Certainly the
comments out of [St Louis Federal Reserve President James] Bullard and
some of the others indicates we're getting closer to a rate hike."
Bullard said the Fed's next interest rate hike "may not be
far off" if the economy evolves as expected, CNBC reported. He told
Reuters, however, that he was undecided on whether he would push for a
rate hike at the Fed's April meeting. Bullard, who is a voting member of
the Federal Open Market Committee, is the most recent Fed official to
suggest rise in rates as soon as April.
Abroad, European stocks closed sharply lower, partly due to
commodity companies and the continued fallout from the Brussels attacks
earlier in the week. In Asia, the major markets slipped with Japan's
Nikkei 225 dipping 0.6% and the Shanghai Composite dropping 1.6%.
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