20/08/2017
US stocks dropped on Friday, with weekly
losses for the second time in a row, under political pressure from the White
House.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 76 points to 21,674 points,
while the NASDAQ fell 5 points to 6216 points. The broader S & P 500
index fell 4 points to 2,425 points.
On a weekly basis, the Dow Jones lost 0.8%, while Nasdaq fell 0.6% last Friday, while S & P 500 lost 0.7% this week.
In Europe, Stokes Europe 600 rose 0.7% or 2.5 points to 374 points, but the index gained 0.6% weekly.
Britain's FTSE 100 fell 64 points to 7,324 points, Germany's DAX fell
38 points to 12,165 points, while France's CAC fell 35 points to 5114
points.
On the other hand, gold futures for December delivery dropped by less
than 0.1% or 80 cents to 1291.60 dollars an ounce, and the yellow metal
recorded losses this week by 0.2%.
In
the oil markets, US Nymex rose 3% or $ 1.42, closing at $ 48.51 a
barrel, but recording a weekly loss of 0.6%, while Brent roseup 3.3% or $
1.69, closing at $ 52.72 per barrel, gaining gains. Weekly by 1.2%.
In terms of economic data, the Michigan / Reuters index of consumer confidence in August roseup to 97.6 points from 93.4 in July.
On the other hand, the number of crude oil drilling platforms in the
United States this week fell to five platforms to 763 platforms,
according to Baker Hughes (BHI.N) data.
In
contrast, the number of gas exploration platforms increased to one in
1821 during the week ending August 18, compared to 83 in the same period
in 2016.
