MW:Stocks, gold, oil tank on earnings; Dollar, Treasurys gain
U.S. stocks and commodities had an ugly day on Friday following some disappointment over earnings at some key U.S. companies including Microsoft Corp. MSFT +0.04% , General Electric Co. GE -0.09% and McDonald’s Corp. MCD Lackluster housing data further deflated investors’ outlook. That drove interest into Treasury bonds and the dollar.
Maybe there’s one good point about all the buzz about being the 25th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash: today wasn’t THAT bad.
The S&P 500 Index SPX -1.66% dropped 24 points, or 1.7%, to 1,433. For the week, it’s actually still up 0.3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average INDU -1.52% lost 205 points, or 1.5%, to 13,343. They’re still up 0.1% from last Friday.
The dollar gained against the euro with the added factor of no major developments coming out of a European Union summit.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.35% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose to 79.627 from 79.356.
Gold futures for December delivery GCZ2 -1.32% fell $20.70, or 1.2%, to settle at $1,724 an ounce. That was 2% lower than last week and the lowest settlement for futures prices since early September, according to FactSet.
Oil futures for November delivery CLX2 -2.13% ended at $90.05 a barrel, down $2.05, or 2.2%.
Treasury prices recovered some of the week’s loss. Yields on 10-year notes 10_YEAR -0.17% , which move inversely to prices, fell 4 basis points to 1.80%.
