Markets mostly fell on Friday.
The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.3 percent. Asian markets were mixed.
Oil prices rose after a US airstrike in Iraq killed Qassem Soleimani, leader of the foreign wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and raised geopolitical tension. Brent crude rose 3.6 percent and West Texas Intermediate rose 3.1 percent.
“We believe that an Iranian retaliation is almost certain,” said Paul Sheldon, chief geopolitical risk analyst at S&P Global Platts.
Also weighing on markets on Friday was a report from the Institute for Supply Management showing that its US manufacturing index fell to 47.2 in December, its lowest since June 2009, from 48.1 in November.
While the ISM's manufacturing index has now shown six consecutive months of contraction, Nigam Arora does not think that the latest jump in oil prices will add much to the economy's woes.
“The lifeblood of the modern economy is semiconductors more than oil is,” he wrote on MarketWatch.
No comments:
Post a Comment