Wall Street suffered losses across the board as oil prices dropped and more Federal Reserve Bank presidents suggested the Fed might raise interest rates next month. The price of a of crude oil plummeted to $41.75 per barrel, falling 2.8%. San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams said in an exclusive interview with USA Today:
“There’s a “very strong case” for the Fed to raise interest rates next month if the economy continues to improve and policymakers are confident that inflation will pick up. “Assuming the data are consistent with those (conditions), I think there’s a very strong case for starting the process of raising interest rates” at the Fed’s Dec. 15-16 meeting. The next natural step…is to start raising rates and to do that gradually.”
All three major averages are down more than 2% for the week so far. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 250 points. The Nasdaq composite fell more than 1 percent to end just above 5,000. The S&P 500 closed down 1.4%.
More on what some Fed bank presidents are saying about a possible interest rate hike from CNBC below.
Here are the final numbers from Thursday, 11/12/15 on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17, 448.07 (-254.15/ -1.44%)
NASDAQ: 5,005.08 (-61.94 / -1.22%)
S&P 500: 2,045.97 (-29.03/ -1.40%)
