All three major U.S. stock indices finished trading Friday in the red with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 giving up gains for 2015. The Nasdaq Composite is still 100 points above the level where it started the year but far off the 5,000 plus mark it finally broke last week.
The Dow closed at 17,749 points Friday, down 0.8% for the week; the S&P was at 2,053, down 0.9%; and the NASDAQ at 4,872, down 1%.
It was a tumultuous week which saw three days where stocks ended lower. The selloff has been in response to continued oil sector weakness, further signs that the strong dollar is cutting into big company earnings and concerns that the Fed is running out of reasons to keep interest rates low.
Low Oil Prices
Economists, including those at the Federal Reserve, have held that lower oil prices will ultimately boost consumer spending and the economy at large but so far that hasn’t shown up in the data. Nevertheless some investors are writing off the data related swings as noise.
“The Fed will be more inclined to raise rates as long as economic indicators, in aggregate, continue to paint a picture of an economy still solidly growing,” wrote Jim Baird, chief investment officer for Plante Moran Financial Advisors in a note on the Michigan release. “The latest strong jobs report and increasing conviction in a likely rate hike in the coming months have contributed to recent volatility in the equity markets. While strong economic news should be viewed as a positive, uncertainty around the outlook for monetary policy and the impact on interest rate will be a continuing source of volatility.”
The VIX volatility index jumped 2% over the course of the week and around 3.5% Friday.