The US stock exchanges showed mixed performance on Friday. By the close in New York, the Dow saw a loss of 0.6 percent compared to the previous trading day, finishing at 47,917 points. A few minutes earlier, the broader S&P 500 was down 0.1 percent, recording approximately 6,817 points. Conversely, the technology-focused Nasdaq 100 was up 0.1 percent at that time, reaching around 25,120 points.
Fluctuations in the stock markets continue to be influenced by the situation in Iran, but the greater concern for the US central bank remains persistently high inflation. Data released on Friday showed that the inflation rate rose to 3.3 percent in March, up from 2.4 percent in the previous month. While the current figures do not entirely clarify whether energy prices, which increased due to the situation involving Iran, are driving price hikes in other sectors, the core inflation-the rate of price increase excluding energy and food-stood at 2.6 percent in March, up slightly from 2.5 percent in February. These figures do not strongly suggest an interest rate cut, which is desired by US President Donald Trump; nevertheless, the central bank also considers labor market data in its decisions, and that sector might be feeling the repercussions of the war even more acutely.
In currency markets, the European common currency strengthened by Friday evening, with one Euro priced at 1.1729 US dollars, meaning a dollar could be bought for 0.8526 Euros. The price of gold showed weakness, falling 0.2 percent by the evening to $4,754 per fine ounce, which equates to €130.31 per gram. Oil prices dropped significantly, with a barrel of North Sea Brent crude costing $94.53 by 10 PM German time on Friday, marking a decrease of 1.5 percent or 139 cents from the previous day’s close.