Stocks Ended with Worst Week in Years

U.S. stocks plunged again on Friday with Wall Street capping off one of its worst weeks of the year as tumbling oil prices spooked markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 315.51 points, or 1.79%, to 17,280.83 and recorded a weekly loss of 3.8%. The S&P 500 closed 33.00 points, or 1.62%, lower at 2,002.33 and lost 3.5% over the week. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day with a loss of 54.56 points, or 1.16%, at 4,653.60 and declined 2.7% over the past five days.

Crude-oil futures fell to their lowest since May 2009 on Friday, briefly dropping below $57 a barrel, after the International Energy Agency delivered the latest reduction in forecasts for global oil demand. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January  fell $2.14, or 3.6%, to settle at $57.81 a barrel.

Americans’ confidence rose in December to an almost eight-year high, pointing to a pickup in holiday-related purchases.The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary December index of consumer sentiment increased to 93.8, the highest since January 2007, from 88.8 last month.