Wall Street closes lower on decline in oil prices

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK

Falling crude oil prices helped push Wall Street lower Thursday.

The Dow lost 112 points to end the day at 21,002 and the S&P fell 14 points to 2,381.

The Nasdaq lost 42 points to close at 5,861.

After reaching record highs Wednesday in the wake of a pro-business speech by President Donald Trump the day before, indexes surrendered some of their gains as the likelihood increased the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates later this month.

A number of Fed officials have recently made statements that a rate hike would come soon.

That caused the dollar to gain against other currencies, and oil prices declined.

At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was trading at $52.66 — a 2.2 percent decline, while Brent crude was down 2.3 percent to $55.13.

Investors will closely monitor a speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Friday.