(MENAFN– ecpulse)
U.S. stocks ended mostly lower on Friday, pulling back from record territory as Ukraine-Russia tensions resurface. Still All three benchmarks scored gains for the third week in a row.
Investors also appeared to shrug at speeches by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, as their comments largely matched expectations.
Stocks traded roughly flat after Yellen’s speech, then slumped to session lows after fresh Ukraine-Russia reports before paring losses. The reports said NATO viewed a buildup of Russian forces near Ukraine as alarming, and the organization condemned the entry of a Russian convoy into Ukraine.
Yellen, at her speech at the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., said the economy is getting closer to the Fed’s goals of full employment and stable inflation, and the debate at the central bank is “naturally shifting” to when the central bank should begin to raise interest rates.
Balancing this less-dovish tone, Yellen said that indicators followed by the Fed suggest the unemployment’s decline overstates the improvement in overall labor market conditions.
Draghi said the European Central Bank stands ready to take more unconventional action if needed, but it can’t solve the euro zone’s unemployment problem all by itself.
-The Dow Jones industrial Average fell 0.22% or 38.27 points to 17001.22
-The S&P 500 Index fell 0.20% or 3.97 points to 1988.40
-The NASDAQ Composite Index gained 0.14% or 6.45 points to 4538.55
The three main indexes all achieved their third weekly gain in a row. The S&P 500 advanced by 1.7% for the week, while the Dow rose 2% and the Nasdaq, 1.7%.
Treasury prices marked a weekly drop on Friday as investors focused on remarks by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, sending the benchmark yield to its biggest weekly rise since the beginning of July.
The 10-year Treasury note yield, which rises as prices fall, was down half a basis point Friday at 2.403%. The yield rose 6 basis points on the week, marking the biggest weekly rise since July 3.
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