(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)Wall Street plunged on Friday as crude prices continued their plunge. At 3:28 p.m. in New York the Dow Jones Industrial (INDEXDJX:.DJI) fell 1.8% to 17253.92. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) declined 1.9% to 2102.84 while the Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) tumbled 2.2% to 4932.82. U.S. oil futures settled lower on Friday after the International Energy Agency expected that global oversupply of crude might worsen next year. West Texas Intermediate settled at $35.62 a barrel down 3.1%. The U.S. oil benchmark entered the $35 territory for the first time since February 2009. LUNCHTIME TRADING Barring an improbable turnaround stocks are set for a losing week with the main benchmarks taking a hammering on Friday. The Dow Jones was off 248 points (1.4%) in lunchtime trading while the broader-based S&P 500 was off 33 points (1.6%) at 2019; the Nasdaq Composite was down 92 points (1.8%) at 4953. 'Once again China concerns have spiked just as a Fed rate decision looms. Continued yuan devaluation has been the main driver this time but it has combined with the ongoing rout in oil and other commodity prices to produce a week of losses for equities' observed Chris Beauchamp at spread betting outfit IG. 'Just a week ago the situation had seemed relatively calm but it now appears that many investors have been trying to put a brave face on the situation. Now that mask has slipped. It goes without saying that the Fed is not meant to take notice of market turmoil in its decisions but if it feels that the international situation once again calls for it to stay its hand next week then we could be witnessing a re-run of September' he added. US retail sales rose 0.2% in November a shade below the 0.3% increase economists had been expecting thanks to lower activity in the car and gasoline elements of the index. Meanwhile the index of consumer sentiment edged up to 91.8 in December from 91.3 the previous month marking the third consecutive month of progress. In a market short on cheer Turtle Beach (NASDAQ:HEAR) crawled 3.4% higher after Fred Romano co-founder of the video game audio specialist bought 20419 shares in the company. Opening report Stock market bulls are running for cover again as share prices collapse ahead of next week's widely-expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Oil prices continue to head south at a rate of knots and as a result energy companies are placing an additional burden on already struggling indexes. After 45 minutes of trading the S&P 500 was down 24 points (1.2%) at 2029 the Dow Jones average was 195 points (1.1%) lower at 17380 and the Nasdaq Composite was off 54 points (1.1%) at 4991. Oil & gas players dominated the list of blue-chip losers with the likes of Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN) Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) and CONSOL Energy (NYSE:CNX) nursing losses of more than 7%. The blockbuster merger between Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) and DuPont (NYSE:DD) announced this morning qualified as one of the least surprising developments of recent weeks and saw both stocks marked lower; the former by 4.6% and the latter by 5%. Down among the small caps Finisar (NASDAQ:FNSR) was defying the trend with brio after results for the three months to 1 November released last night impressed the market. Revenues rose to US$321.14mln from US$297.00mln the year before while the bottom-line turned black from red with a profit after tax of US$6.64mln versus last year's loss of US$11.36mln. Shares in the optical sub-systems provider rose by around one-fifth. Pre-open Investors look to be in a 'risk off' mood ahead of a weekend that will see Chinese retail sales and industrial production figures released. On the US economic front retail sales and producer prices for November are scheduled for release this morning. Spread betting quotes indicate the Dow Jones will give up all of yesterday's gains and more opening at around 17456 down 119 points. The broader-based S&P 500 is tipped to open 13 points softer at around 2039. All eyes will be on DuPont (NYSE:DD) and Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) at the start of trading after the two heavyweights confirmed their intention to merge. Energy stocks are likely to be under pressure again with the International Energy Agency predicting that the global oil glut will continue until at least the far end of 2016 taking into account oil cartel OPEC's determination to crank up production levels. It seems an odd time therefore for car maker Ford (NYSE:F) to have announced it intends to invest another US$4.5bn by 2020 into the development of electric vehicles. Software house Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) is likely to be an early riser after it released better-than-expected results after the close last night. David's Tea (NASDAQ:TEA) is another stock moving in pre-market trading on the back of a trading update last night.
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