NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks deepened their drops Friday as Wall Street finished off a fifth straight losing week, its longest such streak in nearly four years.
The S&P 500 fell 1.7% to close its worst week since the war with Iran began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 793 points, or 1.7%, and fell more than 10% from its record set last month, while the Nasdaq composite sank 2.1%.
The losses were a break from Wall Street’s pattern this week, where the U.S. stock market flip-flopped from gains to losses each day as hopes rose and fell about a possible end to the war.
Moments after the U.S. stock market finished trading on Thursday, President Donald Trump offered more potential for optimism. He extended a self-imposed deadline to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants to April 6 if it doesn’t fully allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to the open ocean.
Oil prices eased immediately afterward in a sign of hope that some normalcy may return to the strait. It was similar to the relief that swept markets Monday, when oil prices slid 10% after Trump announced the first delay to his deadline for clearing the Strait of Hormuz.