Dow Jones, S&P 500 post losses for 2nd consecutive week

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 closed lower Friday to post losses for the second consecutive week.

The Dow decreased almost nine points, or 0.03%, to finish the day at 33,300. The blue-chip index saw a weekly loss of 1.1%.

The S&P 500 shed six points, or 0.16%, to end the last trading day of the week at 4,124. The index recorded a weekly decline of 0.9%.

The Nasdaq declined 43 points, or 0.35%, to close the session at 12,284. However, the tech-heavy index managed to post a gain of 0.4%.

The losses in exchanges came after US consumer sentiment declined in May amid concerns about the economy, according to the University of Michigan's consumer survey preliminary results released earlier.

"Consumer sentiment tumbled 9% amid renewed concerns about the trajectory of the economy, erasing over half of the gains achieved after the all-time historic low from last June," Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu said in a statement.

Due to economic concerns, the VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, rose 0.6% to 17.03. The 10-year US Treasury yield, meanwhile, jumped 2% to 3.464%.

The dollar index was up 0.6% to 102.69, while the euro decreased 0.6% to $1.0850 against the greenback.

Precious metals were in negative territory, with the price of gold losing 0.2% to $2,010 per ounce and silver diving 0.9% to $23.96 an ounce.

Crude oil prices fell around 1% with the global benchmark Brent crude price at $74.22 per barrel and the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude price at $70.09.