The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 652.82 points, or 1.23%, to 52,215.16 on Friday as consumer and financial stocks slid and oil prices climbed.
The S&P 500 lost 39.75 points, or 0.52%, to 7,623.68. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 53.52 points, or 0.21%, to 25,955.34, a day after its biggest one-day drop since June.
Consumer staples, consumer discretionary and financial stocks each fell more than 1%. Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.72-to-1 ratio.
For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.7%, both second straight weekly losses. The Dow rose 0.4%, its third consecutive weekly gain.
Brent crude settled at $116.72 a barrel, its highest close since April 29, after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked fears of new supply disruptions. U.S. crude closed at $103.27.
The energy sector rose 2.5% to a record high. Oilfield services provider SLB gained 7% after beating Wall Street’s third-quarter profit estimates.
Airline stocks fell, with United, Delta and American each falling more than 4%, Yahoo Finance reported.
American Express fell 3.7%, weighing on the Dow, after the card company said it would cut about 5% of its global workforce and take a $336 million restructuring charge, CNBC reported.
Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC the restructuring was meant to make the company “leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI.”
Amex also raised its full-year earnings outlook to $18.30 to $18.60 a share on an unadjusted basis. Adjusted quarterly earnings of $4.68 a share beat estimates of $4.48.
Telecom stocks slid after a report that SpaceX was seeking cell sites for a fourth wireless carrier. AT&T and T-Mobile each sank nearly 8%, while tower operator Crown Castle jumped 9%.
Consumers Gloomy as Fed Meeting Nears
Consumer sentiment slipped to 48.0 in October from 48.1 in September, the University of Michigan said.
“Purchasing power continues to dominate consumer views of the economy,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the survey. “Sentiment is now 10% below a year ago and 15% below February, just prior to the Iran conflict.”
About 69% of consumers expect interest rates to rise, the highest share since April 2023, according to the survey.
The Federal Reserve is expected to hold rates steady when it releases its policy statement Wednesday, though investors will look for clues on whether it might raise rates in December, Reuters reported.
About one-third of S&P 500 companies report results next week, including Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon. S&P 500 companies are on track for third-quarter earnings growth of more than 32%, according to LSEG data.
“There is still fallout from the questioning of the AI trade,” said Kristina Hooper of Man Group. “There’s certainly the potential that we see less invested in an AI data center build-out next year than has been projected.”
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