US stocks modestly lower on Friday

Stocks are falling on Wall Street (but moved off lows) on a negative day for equity prices across the globe. No particular factor was affecting stocks and some analyst mentioned speculations about Federal Reserve probabilities of a September rate hike.

The Dow Jones index was losing 43 points or 0.23%, the S&P 500 was down 0.27% and the Nasdaq.  There were flat for the week but the Nasdaq was modestly higher, on its way to the eight weekly gain in a row.

Among commodities, crude oil is down modestly with the barrel hovering above $48.00, consolidating a weekly gain of 8% while gold is falling 0.75%, struggling to hold above $1340/oz. European markets ended the week and Friday with losses. Today Germany's DAX 30 index dropped 0.50%,  while the UK's FTSE 100 lost 0.17% and the French CAC 40 declined 0.76%.