Oil prices fell sharply on Monday to touch a one-month low on doubts about OPEC’s ability to implement its planned production cut, while global equity prices were shaky as Wall Street struggled to build on a sentiment boost from a string of M&A deals.
The dollar recovered some ground, shaking off concerns linked to an investigation that could influence the U.S. presidential election.
Oil prices dropped more than $1 a barrel after officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-member producers met in Vienna on Saturday but failed to make any specific commitment to join OPEC countries in limiting output to support prices.
“The market is becoming a bit weary,” said Kyle Cooper, analyst at ION Energy in Houston. “Unless OPEC can circle the wagons and get everyone on the same page, the market’s going to be skeptical.”
Brent crude settled down $1.41, or 2.84 percent, at $48.30 a barrel, while U.S. crude settled down $1.84, or 3.78 percent, at $46.86.
Lower oil prices weighed on energy shares on Wall Street and in Europe. MSCI’s 47-country “All World” index was up 0.07 percent.
The index found little support from Wall Street despite a boost to sentiment from a flurry of deal activity that included General Electric’s merger of its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes Inc and CenturyLink’s acquisition of Level 3 Communications.
Investors remained cautious about taking large positions ahead of the outcome of the U.S. election next week.
“The potential for volatility is high and that keeps people worried,” said Scott Fullman, chief strategist at Revere Securities LLC.
Meanwhile, U.S. consumer spending rose more than expected in September as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles and inflation increased steadily, which could bolster expectations of an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve in December.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 6.4 points, or 0.04 percent, to 18,154.79, the S&P 500 gained 1.89 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,128.3 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.98 points, or 0.13 percent, to 5,197.08.
European equities fell for a sixth straight session, with energy shares tracking weaker crude oil prices and financial stocks losing ground. Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 0.55 percent at 1,338.50. [
The U.S. dollar rose against a basket of major currencies on reduced worries over the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation of emails linked to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server.
The greenback suffered its worst fall in more than seven weeks on Friday following news that the FBI is reviewing fresh evidence in its probe of the Democratic presidential candidate.
A Clinton win is generally seen by analysts as likely to be a positive for the dollar, and the FBI announcement on Friday gave new hope to Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump that he can beat her on Nov. 8.
The dollar index was up 0.08 percent at 98.422.
The stronger dollar pushed gold slightly lower. Spot gold prices were down 0.04 percent to $1,2275.42.
U.S. Treasury prices gained on safety buying sparked by greater uncertainty over next week’s election and demand for bonds for month-end portfolio rebalancing.
Benchmark 10-year notes were up 3/32 in price to yield 1.83 percent, down from 1.85 percent late on Friday.