New York (AFP)
Wall Street closed lower on Monday, weighed down by worries about soaring oil prices after attacks on facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, dropped 0.52% to 27,076.82 points, after eight consecutive hike sessions.
Nasdaq, with its strong technological color, fell by 0.28% to 8,153.54 points, and the broad S & P 500 index lost 0.31% to 2,997.96 points.
Oil prices skyrocketed on Monday in response to two major attacks on Saudi oil sites over the weekend, which cut the country's output by half, to 5.7 million barrels per day, about 6% of the world's supply.
The barrel of reference on the world market, the North Sea Brent quoted in London, jumped 14.6%, its highest increase since the contract was formalized in 1988. The barrel of WTI, reference crude in New York, climbed 14.7%.
"Such a move in oil prices is creating anxiety in the markets," said Nate Thooft of Manulife Asset Management.
But, according to the expert, "the decline is finally quite light.When such important events have occurred in the Middle East in the past, we have seen much more important reactions."
"This indicates that the market is focusing on other topics that seem more important to him, such as growth prospects or trade war decisions," said Thooft.
However, some sectors have suffered from the sudden rise in oil prices and uncertainties in the global economy.
Air carriers American Airlines (-7.3%), United (-2.8%) and Delta (-1.6%) were among the main losers of Monday's session.
Several major US banks such as Goldman Sachs (-1.2%), Citigroup (-0.8%) and Morgan Stanley (-0.9%) declined, weighted by the decline in interest rates on the bond market. The 10-year yield on US debt was 1.842% around 20H15 GMT, against 1.896% Friday at the close.
The oil majors, on the other hand, saw their shares increase significantly: Marathon Oil Corp gained 11.6%, Occidental 6% and ExxonMobil 1.7%.
© 2019 AFP