Oil prices sink stocks again

Stocks edged lower Friday as the price of oil retreated and pulled energy company shares down, but the Standard & Poor’s 500 index still had its best week since November.

The S&P ended the day down just a fraction of a point after being down nearly 1 percent earlier in the day. After big gains Tuesday and Wednesday, it finished the week up 2.8 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 21.44 to 16,391.99 and the Nasdaq composite rose 16.89 to 4.504.43 as tech stocks attracted more interest than the broader market.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.13, or 3.7 percent, to $29.64 a barrel in New York, ending its rally but still up 17 percent from the previous week.

Also Friday, the Labor Department said prices for consumer goods had risen 1.4 percent over the last year, a sign that the pace of inflation was picking up and the economy was improving. The combination of a strong dollar and cheaper oil has suppressed inflation across much of the economy, but prices of other goods have been rising.

Michael Scanlon, managing director and portfolio manager for John Hancock Asset Management, said consumers were still spending plenty of money on cars, homes and travel, and he thinks that spending is going to grow.

“People feel more stable in their jobs with increasing wages (and) home prices continue to rise,” he said.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Oil prices sink stocks again."