NEW YORK — A sharp drop in crude prices tugged down shares in oil and gas companies Friday, leading the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to a slight loss in a short trading session.
The index, a benchmark for many investments, still closed November with its third-best month this year.
“Crude is the big story today,” said JJ Kinahan, TD Ameritrade’s chief strategist. “There are very clear winners and losers. The Chevrons and Exxons of the world are getting hammered; then, on the other side, you have the shipping companies — UPS and FedEx — along with the airlines. For them, it’s a beautiful story.”
The S&P 500 index lost 5.27 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 2,067.56. As a group, energy companies lost 6 percent, the worst drop of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 by far.
The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 0.49 of a point, a sliver of a percent, to eke out another record high, 17,828.24. The Nasdaq composite picked up 4.31 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 4,791.63. Regular U.S. trading closed at 11 a.m. Mountain time Friday, and the market was closed Thursday.
Rising corporate profits and a steadily improving U.S. economy have helped push the stock market to record highs this month. The S&P 500 gained 2.5 percent in November. But it was a quiet climb, a combination of many small steps. There wasn’t a single day in November that the index rose more than 1 percent.
The main news driving trading was a decision made Thursday by the OPEC oil cartel to keep production at 30 million barrels a day. Crude oil slumped $7.54, or 10 percent, to settle at $66.15.
The recent slide for oil prices has had a double-edged effect on the market. It has given a boost to airlines, shippers, retailers and cruise lines, which benefit from both falling costs and customers having more money in their pockets to spend. But it has battered drillers, producers and other companies that provide services to the oil and gas industry.
Despite steep drops around the world, Europe’s major markets ended with slight gains. France’s CAC 40 added 0.2 percent, while Germany’s DAX inched up 0.1 percent. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 index of leading British companies barely moved from the previous day.
