Wall Street's losses deepened Friday as the ongoing fallout from the war in Iran keeps pushing oil prices higher, ratcheting up inflationary pressure on the global economy. The indexes closed with their third straight weekly loss.
- The Dow lost 119.38 points to finish at 46,558.47.
- The S&P 500 fell 40.43 points to 6,632.19.
- The Nasdaq dropped 206.62 points to 22,105.36.
After briefly easing early Friday, crude oil prices rose again, bringing the benchmark oil price back above $100 a barrel, the AP reports. Brent crude, the international standard, closed 2.7% higher at $103.14 per barrel. It's up about 40% for the month. A barrel of US crude oil rose 3.1% to settle at $98.71. It's risen around 46% this month. "Everything's just trading with crude oil at this point," said Michael Antonelli, market strategist at Baird. "We're basically in a holding pattern until we get kind of the hour-by-hour, day-by-day news about the conflict in the Middle East."
Also on Friday, a new snapshot of consumer spending showed inflation crept higher in January, even before the Iran war caused oil and gas prices to spike. The Commerce Department said prices rose 2.8% in January compared with a year earlier. But excluding the volatile food and energy categories—which the Federal Reserve pays closer attention to—core prices rose 3.1%, up from 3% in the prior month and the highest in nearly two years. In trading, Ulta Beauty slid 14.2% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 stocks after the beauty and makeup retailer's latest quarterly results fell short of analysts' profit targets. Ulta's profit was dinged by a 23% increase in selling, general and administrative expenses, which jumped to $1 billion in the period.
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