Wall Street closes lower amid slumping crude oil prices and profit taking
After starting the day lower, major equity indexes in the U.S. remained under pressure as investors cashed in their profits from yesterday's record-setting rise and falling crude oil prices hurt the market sentiment.
The barrel of West Texas Intermediate fell below the $43 handle for the first time since mid-November as the rising oil production in Libya revived the concerns over the global supply glut, pushing the S&P energy index .SPNY 1% lower.
Stephen Massocca, Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco, explained to Reuters that the drop in oil prices also appeared to affect the broader market beyond energy as a lot of stocks that have absolutely nothing to do with oil are impacted by this.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 56.65 points, or 0.15%, to 21,472.34, the S&P 500 dropped 12.2 points, or 0.50%t, to 2,435 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 48.13 points, or 0.77%, to 6,190.88.
Headlines from the U.S. session
- Fed's Kaplan: Technology, globalization is holding down U.S. inflation
- Fed's Kaplan: Inflation has been notably sluggish, though that's not all bad
- US Dollar consolidates daily gains near mid-97s
- US House Speaker Ryan: Tax reform is key to U.S. economic growth
- Qatar Petroleum CEO: Qatar crude production will rise by 10%, or 400,000 bpd, in 5 to 7 years
- OPEC, non-OPEC compliance with oil output cuts in May hit 106% - Reuters
- Fed’s Evans: Could take over 3-years to get balance sheet down - CNBC
- Philly Fed: Nonmanufacturing business activity continued to expand in June
- US: Current-account deficit increased to $116.8 bln in Q1 2017
- Fed's Rosengren: Low rates make fighting future recessions tougher