Rising oil prices cause Wall Street to lose ground

Stocks slipped on Wall Street Friday under increasing pressure from rising oil prices.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent, adding to its decline from a day before. The index is on track for a second-straight week of losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 541 points, or one per cent, as of 12:33 p.m. Eastern time.

The Nasdaq composite rose 0.1 per cent, bolstered by gains for several big tech stocks that also helped ease losses elsewhere.

Rising oil prices weighed heavily on the market, where three out of every four stocks within the benchmark S&P 500 index fel

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 3.6 per cent to US$117.20. It has surged from less than US$97 at the start of October and is now at its highest level since March.

Several AI-related companies made big moves. Micron Technology jumped 3.6 per cent and Microsoft rose 0.8 per cent and helped ease the impact on major indexes from a drop for most stocks. Advanced Micro Devices jumped 2.3 per cent. https://globalnews.ca/news/12118396/stock-markets-ai-tech-oil/