Friday 23 October 2026
Wall Street ends the week lower as oil settles above 116 dollars and the selloff spreads beyond tech stocks
Stocks closed lower on Friday to end a hard week. The Dow fell 652.82 points to 52,215.16, the S and P 500 fell 0.52 percent to 7,623.68, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.21 percent to 25,955.34, as of the October 23 close. Brent crude settled at 116.72 dollars a barrel, up 3.1 percent, on fears of renewed American and Israeli strikes on Iran. The selling that began in AI stocks on Thursday rotated into consumer and health care names.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average took the worst of Friday. It fell 652.82 points, or 1.23 percent, to close at 52,215.16. The S and P 500 lost 0.52 percent to 7,623.68, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.21 percent to 25,955.34, as of the October 23 close. Thursday rout in technology shares, when the Nasdaq fell 2.6 percent, did not repeat at the same size. Instead the selling moved into the defensive parts of the market, and consumer staples, utilities and health care all closed lower.
Picture is an illustration of a stock exchange trading floor at the close.
Oil drove the day. Brent crude settled at 116.72 dollars a barrel, up 3.1 percent and the highest settlement since April, and West Texas Intermediate rose 3.8 percent to 103.22 dollars. Traders were pricing the chance of a renewed American and Israeli air campaign against Iran, after Tehran warned it would answer new strikes by hitting airports, pipelines and civilian targets across the Gulf. Energy shares were the one strong sector in the S and P 500.
Bond yields moved back up with the oil price. The ten year Treasury yield returned to 5.00 percent on Friday, a day after its sharpest one day fall in more than three years. The Federal Reserve meets on October 27 and 28, and markets widely expect it to hold rates at 3.75 to 4.00 percent.
Among single names, American Express fell more than 3 percent after the company said it will cut about 5 percent of its global workforce. Caterpillar fell about 2 percent. Chip stocks went the other way and recovered part of Thursday losses, with Micron up nearly 3 percent and Advanced Micro Devices up almost 2 percent, and Microsoft also closed higher. Instacart shares rose about 9 percent on reports that the grocery delivery company is exploring a sale.
Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management, told CNBC that for two weeks investors have been sprinting out of tech stocks and data center names into safer ground, and that Friday looked like the point where that sprint ran out of runners. Earnings from the big tech companies so far this season have been strong, he said, which gave buyers a reason to come back to the sector.
This story reports what the markets did and what traders and officials said about it. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell anything.
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