Wall Street closes lower as Brent crude rises above $116

Wall Street’s three main indices closed lower on Friday, 23 October, while Brent crude rose 3.14% to settle at $116.72 a barrel. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.23% to 52,215.16 points. The S&P 500 lost 0.52% to finish at 7,623.68, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.21% to 25,955.34.

Dutch news agency ANP said rising oil prices weighed on market sentiment. The decline was broad: according to the Associated Press, nearly three in four S&P 500 stocks fell. But the moves were not uniform. Reuters reported that the index’s energy sector gained 2.5% and its technology sector rose 0.4%. The market reports do not establish how much of the overall fall was attributable to oil.