The US markets ended lower on Friday on account of lingering concerns about the global economic outlook. Further, weakness too prevailed in the markets due to falling oil prices, which drove the indexes to weekly loses of more than 3.5% -the second straight week of declines. Crude oil’s bear market deteriorated on Friday, as investors grappled with growing output from the US, President Donald Trump’s entreaties to key producers to keep prices lower, and generally rising inventories, despite a recent cold snap in many oil-consuming regions. The fall in oil prices weighed heavily on energy stocks, as 9 of the 10 of the biggest losers in the S&P 500 on Friday were from shares of companies with links to the energy complex. For the week, the Nasdaq tumbled 4.3%, the Dow ended the week 4.4% lower, while the S&P 500 notched a week-on-week decline of 3.8%.
A continued decline by shares of Apple (AAPL) also weighed on the markets, with the tech giant slumping by 2.5 percent to its lowest closing level in well over six months. Apple extended a recent downtrend after a report from the Wall Street Journal said the company is moving to offer subsidies to mobile-network operators in Japan, effectively cutting the price of its recently released iPhone XR. Besides, investors also keyed in on developments in European politics, after the U.K. and European Union both announced progress on Thursday in outlining their future relationship after Britain exits the EU.
Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 178.74 or 0.73 percent points to 24285.95, S&P 500 dropped 17.37 points or 0.66 percent to 2632.56 and Nasdaq was down 33.27 points or 0.48 percent to 6938.98.
