US stocks withdraw from rally to open lower Friday

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stocks withdrew from previous day's rally to open in negative territory on Friday.

The Dow Jones fell 122 points, or 0.36%, to 33,592 at 9.42 a.m. EDT, while the S&P 500 lost 7 points, or 0.18%, to 3,949. The indexes jumped 3.7% and 5.54%, respectively, on Thursday.

The Nasdaq declined 18 points, or 0.17%, to 11,095. The tech-heavy index soared 4.8% on previous session.

All three indexes on Thursday posted their best single-day performance since April 2020 after annual consumer inflation in the US came in at 7.7% in October, easing from the 8.2% annual gain in September, according to the Labor Department figures.

The slowdown gave hope to investors that the Fed could take its foot off the throttle in increasing interest rates in the coming months, and make small hikes such as 50 or 25 basis points, instead of the 75 basis points it imposed during its last four monetary meetings.

The VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, fell 0.04% to 23.52. The 10-year US Treasury yield was flat at 3.811%.

The dollar index was down 0.9% to 107.20 but still around its highest in 20 years, while the euro jumped 0.7% to $1.0279 against the greenback.

Precious metals were mixed, with gold adding 0.3% to $1,760 per ounce but silver decreasing 1.1% to $21.43.

Oil prices changed course and gained more than 3%. Global benchmark Brent crude trading at $96.54 per barrel for a gain of 3.1%. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was around $89.56 -- up 3.6%.