Despite Thursday’s last day of May fall, the month was still positive for US markets.
The Dow ended more than 250 points lower, a decline of 1%, the S&P 500 fell 0.7% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3%.
For May the Dow saw a 1.1% rise, the S&P 500 jumped 2.2% and the Nasdaq Composite surged 5.3%. The small-cap Russell 2000 though posted a 6.1% monthly rise.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index fell 0.6% for the month, a long way from the 3.9% jump in April.
The US dollar had its best month since the presidential election in November 2016, gaining 2.6%.
The Aussie dollar rose 0.4% over the month, ending at 75.6 US cents on Thursday afternoon new York Time (early Friday Sydney time).
Oil prices took a divergent tack – the July US West Texas Intermediate futures contract fell $US1.17, or 1.7%, to settle at $67.04 a barrel in New York on Thursday, May 31 to be down 2.2% for the month.
But in Europe, the July Brent crude contract which expired at the day’s settlement, rose 9 cents, or 0.1%, to $US77.59 a barrel, for a gain of 3.2% for the month. August Brent is now the front month contract.
The Metal Bulletin 62% Fe iron ore price delivered to northern China ended May at $US65.32, down a fraction from April’s $US65.68, but above March’s $US64.99.
Comex August gold lost $US1.80, or 0.1%, to settle at $US1,304.70 an ounce, a loss of around 1.6% lower for the month. Based on the most-active futures contracts, gold was down about 1.1% in May.
Gold hit a fresh 2018 low in mid-May and fell through the $US1,300-to-$US1,350 range that had confined gold for much of this year.
Comex July silver futures fell 0.5% to $US16.458 an ounce, but the metal was up nearly 0.5% for the month. Comex July copper ended at $US3.065 a pound, down 0.1% for the day, and down half a per cent for the month.
