Oil shot to its highest price since 2023 after surging again Friday because of the Iran war, and a weak update on the US job market knocked stocks lower to cap Wall Street’s worst week since October.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.3 percent after a report showed US employers cut more jobs last month than they created and after oil prices spiked above US$90 per barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged as many as 945 points before finishing with a loss of 453, or 0.9 percent, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6 percent.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, leaped another 8.5 percent to settle at US$92.69. It briefly rose above US$94 to touch its highest level since September 2023.

A barrel of benchmark US crude breached the $90 level for the first time since 2023 and jumped 12.2 percent to US$90.90.

In the bond market, Treasury yields wavered, with higher oil prices pushing upward on them and the discouraging updates on the US economy pulling downward.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury initially rose toward 4.19 percent before pulling back to 4.14 percent. That’s up from 4.13 percent late on Thursday and just 3.97 percent a week earlier.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 90.69 points to 6,740.02. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 453.19 to 47,501.55, and the Nasdaq composite sank 361.31 to 22,387.68. (AP)



Edited by Robert Kemp