Wall Street ends lower amid US political concerns

US stock indices closed lower on Friday, led down by consumer and manufacturing stocks, and shrugging off earlier strong US consumer sentiment data according to University of Michigan's survey. 

Similarly, we followed Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan's speech at the Dallas County Community College, where he expressed his belief GDP growth will be above 2% this year, and pointed to surplus space left for household spending in the US. 

Earlier this week, the Fed released the minutes of the July 25-26 meeting, at which policymakers voted to maintain interest rates at between 1.0% and 1.25%, and asserting the normalizing plans of the bank's massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet despite recent concerns about softening inflation. 

US president Donald Trump dissolved two business and manufacturing advisory councils earlier this week after a wave of CEOs quit them in protest of Trump's failure to quickly condemn White supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.  

These tensions forced back to the surface concerns about Trump's agenda, including his promises to cut taxes and regulations and expand infrastructure spending, and to repeal and replace the current healthcare system known as Obamacare. 

Dow Jones shed 0.35%, or 76.22 points to 21,674.51, while Standard and Poor's 500 declined 0.18%, or 4.46 points to 2,425.55, as NASDAQ Composite edged down 0.09%, or 5.39 points to 6,216.53. 

Gold futures due on December 16 inched down 0.02% to $1,292.10 an ounce from the opening of $1,292.40, while the dollar index retreated 0.25% to 93.39 from the opening of 93.62. 

Otherwise, US crude futures due on September 15 rose 3.31% to $48.65 a barrel from the opening of $47.09, while Brent crude futures due on October rallied 3.55% to $52.84 a barrel from the opening of $51.03.