- US stocks fell Friday as the Nasdaq saw big swings in a choppy trading day.
- The top indexes finished with weekly losses, erasing big gains made immediately after the Fed meeting Wednesday.
- Oil prices also slipped as rising cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant reignites demand fears.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
US stocks finished lower Friday, though the Nasdaq erased most of its losses in a choppy session that closed out a volatile week.
Meanwhile, the Dow and S&P 500 extended their losses Friday, with the Dow falling over 500 points. By the close, the top indexes had given up all their gains from earlier in the week and finished in negative territory.
Markets initially spiked in the immediate aftermath of the Federal Reserve's meeting Wednesday, when policymakers accelerated the pace of bond-purchase tapering and signaled three rate hikes in 2022. Despite the Fed's more hawkish stance, Chairman Jerome Powell still indicated flexibility during his press briefing.
But stocks sold off Thursday as other central banks joined the Fed. The Bank of England announced a surprise increase in interest rates, and the European Central Bank said it would wind down an emergency bond-buying program. While a separate ECB stimulus effort will ramp up, the net effect is fewer asset purchases.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Friday:
- S&P 500: 4,620.64, down 1.03%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,365.44, down 1.48% (532.20 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 15,169.68, down 0.07%
Elsewhere in the market, Rivian stock sank after revealing late Thursday that production of electric trucks this year would fall short of its target. The electric truck startup also confirmed plans to build a new factory in Georgia, which will add to its existing production capacity in Normal, Illinois.
AMC stock rose as much as 22% after the theater chain said that the latest "Spider-Man" movie set box office records for a December release.
An executive with Digital World Acquisition Corp., who says he was in the running for a board seat and was an integral part of the deal to bring Donald Trump's media firm public, is suing the blank-check firm for fraud, according to the New York Times.
Tesla stock slipped as CEO Elon Musk offloaded another $884.1 million worth of shares in the EV maker. Since early November, his sales now total nearly $14 billion.
Meanwhile, hedge fund giant Ray Dalio confirmed he owns ether in addition to bitcoin but described both holdings as "a relatively small part" of his portfolio.
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, whose software company owns about $6 billion worth of bitcoin, said the cryptocurrency doesn't need Warren Buffett's endorsement to be wildly successful.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled 2.1% lower at $71.86 per barrel on Friday and posted a weekly loss of 1.1%. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, slipped 2.3% to $73.32 per barrel.
Gold rose rose 0.1% to $1,799.50 per ounce, while bitcoin dropped 3.6% to $46,378.70. The 10-year US treasury rate dipped 1.5 basis points to 1.407%.