skip to main |
skip to sidebar
U.S. stocks ended February with a whimper and a roar. The main indexes finished the week roughly where they started it, but still booked hefty monthly gains.
The S&P 500 SPX, -0.30% ended 6.25 points, or 0.3%, lower at 2,104.73, and booked a 0.3% loss over the week. The benchmark index advanced 5.5% over the past month, however, for the best monthly gain since October 2011.
The U.S. dollar index posted a monthly gain after spending much of February in consolidation mode as investors await further signals on the timing of the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate increase move.
The euro EURUSD, -0.02% traded at $1.1197, little changed from its level in late North American trade on Thursday.
The dollar was at ¥119.63 compared with USDJPY, +0.18% ¥119.49 late Thursday in New York.
The lira USDTRY, +0.12% traded at a rate of 2.5087 per dollar in recent action and traded at 2.5248 per dollar in earlier action, breaching the previous all-time low set on Feb. 11, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ Dollar Index BUXX, +0.04% a measure of the dollar against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.03 point at 85.89.
April natural gas NGJ15, +0.48% added 3.7 cents, or 1.4%, to $2.734 per million British thermal units, up 1.6% for the month.
March heating oil HOH5, +2.68% rallied, settling up 16.3 cents, or 7.6%, at $2.299 a gallon—up roughly 36% for the month, driven by weather-related demand.
March futures contracts for gasoline and heating oil expired at the close Friday. March gasoline RBH5, +3.85% rose 6 cents, or 3.5%, to $1.768 a gallon. Prices were up a whopping 25% for the month.
