Wall Street closes mixed as Florida prepares for Irma
After a choppy session, major equity indexes in the U.S. closed the day mixed on Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding small gains and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite recording losses.
Recent reports suggested that Hurricane Irma was losing strength and it was recently downgraded to a category four from a category five. Despite the recent downgrade, "Hurricane Irma continues to be a threat that is going to devastate the United States in either Florida or some of the south-eastern states," Administrator of the US Federal Emergency Agency (FEMA) Brock Long said in a press conference.
“Investors are really in a wait-and-see mode given their concern about the impact of Hurricane Irma on Florida and wherever else it ends up going,” Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis, told Reuters. Commenting on the recent natural disaster in the U.S., New York Fed President William Dudley argued that hurricanes were likely to reduce the growth forecasts for the third quarter of 2017.
Irma also weighed on crude oil prices, pushing the S&P energy sector .SPNY 1% lower on the day. The barrel of WTI closed the day 3.1% lower at $47.56, On the other hand, following yesterday's sharp drop (-1.6%), the financial sector .SPSY rebounded strongly, gaining more than 1% on the day.
At the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13 points, or 0.06%, at 21,797.79, the S&P 500 dropped 4 points, or 0.01%, to 2,462.00 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 37.68 points, or 0.59%, to 6,360.10.
Headlines from the US session:
- What has changed in EM - BBH
- NY Fed: GDP Nowcast eases to 2.1% for Q3 of 2017
- Atlanta Fed: GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth in Q3 rose to 3%
- USD: Softness to continue over the medium term - Wells Fargo
- US: House clears debt limit extension with govt funding, storm aid - LiveSquawk
- Fed’s Dudley: As time passes Fed will continue to tighten policy
- US: Inventories of wholesalers were $602.4 billion at the end of July, up 0.6% from June
- US: Strong broad-based activity numbers - ANZ