Talk about a volatile trading session to close out the week and month right behind me here at the NYSE.
U.S. stocks are more than half a percent lower Friday afternoon, on this the last trading day of the month of April, as investors take in earnings, data and currency moves.
The Dow Jones was down more than 100 points in early afternoon trade as data failed to impress the markets including:
Chicago PMI for April at 50.4, below expectations of 53.0
The final April read on consumer sentiment came in at 89.0.
Also, personal spending rose 0.1 percent in March, and personal income rose 0.4 percent
But the major market mover for the week, the Nikkei, was closed overnight for a national holiday, earlier in the week, the Nikkei took a beating after the BofJ decided to leave its rate policy unchanged, this to the dismay of many hoping for some action from the central bank…
Meanwhile, China's central bank set the yuan midpoint against the U.S. dollar at 6.4589 in the biggest daily strengthening since 2005, when China removed its peg to the dollar.
Team this with steady oil prices and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) posted a greater-than-expected loss of 39 cents a share, while revenue beat expectations at $23.55 billion - marking a roughly 32 percent decline in sales from the comparable year-ago figure.
You have a session where:
The Dow Jones industrial average traded down 80 points, or 0.45 percent, to 17,750, The S&P 500 declined 10 points, or 0.50 percent, to 2,065, and the Nasdaq composite declined 29 points, or 0.60 percent, to 4,776.
Turning across the pond…
Britain's top share index fell on Friday, putting it on course for a second straight weekly drop as travel and finance stocks were hit by poorly received updates from IAG (LON:ICAG) and RBS (LON:RBS).
British Airways-owner IAG, was down 4.7 percent. While it slightly beat earnings estimates, it said that demand was falling after attacks in Brussels in March, and that it would slow its expansion plans.
Britain's FTSE 100. FTSE was down 50.94 points, or 0.8 percent at 6,271.64 points approaching the market close…
And we conclude with the following markets:
U.S. crude oil futures for June delivery rose 36 cents to $46.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold futures for June delivery rose $21.10 to $1,287.50 an ounce.