NEW YORK: International stock markets are now getting affected as Middle East crisis raises, however, U.S. stock futures pointed Thursday further declines in Wall Street as oil prices remained above $100 a barrel being worried over oil supply disruptions from Libya.
Israeli stocks declined for a fourth day on Thursday, with weakness across all sectors, particularly in some banks, drug makers and cellular-service provider Cellcom .
The turmoil in Libya also continued to weigh on international markets Thursday. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.5% in midday trading, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average closed down 1.2%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 80 points from 12,005 at 12,085, while Standard & Poor’s 500 had dropped 2.8 points to 1,302.7 while Nasdaq 100 were off 1 point at 2,302.5.
Oil futures continued to soar worries and Libyan exports are steadily falling which could be completely halted in the coming days.
Crude oil for April delivery rose $2.18 to $100.28 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex, having earlier hit an intraday high of $103.41 a barrel.
“The scale of the Libyan conflict worries that unrest could spread to the oil-producing giant of Saudi Arabia have now hit home,” said Will Hedden, a trader at IG Index.
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