Oil prices shot to a record of $60 a barrel, sending
stocks—especially fuel-dependent issues like Yellow Roadway
Corp.—to big losses today.
Light sweet crude reached an intraday record of $60.05 a
barrel while FedEx Corp. profits missed estimates by 2 cents a
share on rising jet fuel costs.
The decline in transportation issues—Yellow Roadway fell
$1.51, or 3.01 percent, to $48.50—spread to the rest of the
markets and sent the Dow Jones industrial average to its
steepest loss since April 15.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 166.49
points, or 1.57 percent, and closed at 10,421.44. The Nasdaq
composite index dropped 21.37 points, or 1.02 percent, to
2,070.66. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 13.15 points, or
1.08 percent, to 1,200.73.
“We always wondered what $60 a barrel oil would cost us,
and now we know,” Jeff Kleintop, chief investment strategist for
PNC Financial Services Group in Philadelphia, told The
Associated Press. “On top of that, you’ve got news from FedEx, a
transportation company, saying, ‘Yeah, oil is hurting us.’
That’s got the market shaken up a bit.”
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude settled at
$59.42, up $1.33 a barrel
