The stock exchanges in New York closed with small losses on Friday after a shortened trading day. Traditionally, the stock exchanges opens for half a day on the day after Thanksgiving, when the trade remains completely silent. Investors digested, among other things, sharply falling oil prices. Shoppers were also attracted by the Black Friday shopping day and in the run-up to Cyber Monday.
The leading Dow-Jones index ended 0.7 percent lower at 24,285.95 points. The broader composite S & P 500 also lost 0.7 percent to 2632.56 points. Nasdaq dropped 0.5 percent to 6938.98 points.
Energy companies suffered from falling oil prices, which fell to the lowest levels of the year. Reports about record production in Saudi Arabia re-awakened concerns about an oversupply on the oil market. The price of a barrel of American oil dropped 6.6 percent to $51.04. Brent oil was 5.3 percent cheaper and cost $59.31 per barrel. The oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil fell to 3.4 percent.
Airlines benefited from the prospect of lower fuel prices. Delta Air Lines, United Continental and American Airlines increased to 4.5 percent.
On the Friday after Thanksgiving the Christmas shopping season began, by far the most important period of the year for most retailers. Many Americans take the day off to do shopping. Coming Monday, on Cyber Monday, people search for offers on the internet. Retailers such as Amazon, Target and Kohl’s lost up to 3.7 percent. Walmart added 1 percent.
Apple went down 2.5 percent. The share has already lost a lot of value in recent weeks due to disappointing demand for the latest iPhones. Trading was very quiet because many investors chose to hold a long weekend. Trading volumes were about a third lower than normal.
The euro was worth $1.1333, against $1.1352 earlier in the day at the close of the European stock exchanges.
