Friday turned out to be a daunting session of trade for the US equity markets which crashed like house of card on account of continued decrease by the price of crude oil, which has fallen sharply amid ongoing concerns about global oversupply. The prices of crude oil are declining continuously after the International Energy Agency warned the global supply glut would continue into the New Year. Crude oil for January delivery tumbled $1.14 to end the day $35.62 a barrel, its worst closing level since February of 2009. Concerns about the outlook for monetary policy also weighed, as the Federal Reserve is due to hold its highly anticipated meeting next week. While the Fed is widely expected to announce an increase in interest rates, traders will be looking to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for further rate hikes. Sentiments also remained dampened as retail sales fall short of the streets’ expectation. The retail sales rose by 0.2 percent in November after inching up by 0.1 percent in October, though the street had expected sales to increase by about 0.3 percent. However, core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline, and building materials, increased by 0.6 percent in November after rising by 0.2 percent in October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 309.54 points or 1.76 percent to 17,265.21, the Nasdaq slumped 111.71 points or 2.21 percent to 4,933.47 and the S&P 500 declined 39.86 points or 1.94 percent to 2,012.37.
The Indian ADRs closed in red; Tata Motors was down 2.06%, HDFC Bank was down 1.55%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.87%, ICICI Bank was down 0.60% and Infosys was down by 0.20%.