While you were sleeping: UPDATED Oil price tumble pushes Wall Street

A tumble in oil prices forced stocks on Wall Street down, closing out a month low volatility and reduced volumes.

August also ended with slight monthly losses as major US indexes moved in a narrow range and investor expectations for market swings plumbed their lowest levels in years.

US crude dropped 3.6% to $US44.70 a barrel after data showed stockpiles increased to another record and sparked a 1.4% drop in energy shares in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 declined slightly more than 0.1% in August.

“There hasn’t been a lot of change in the narrative,” Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments, told Dow Jones.

“There hasn’t been a lot of change in the mediocrity of economic data, either. The Fed is still doing a lot of jawboning around whether they’ll raise rates in December versus September.”

Stocks remain comfortably higher in 2016, with the S&P 500 up 6.2% year-to-date.

Dow eases 53 points
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 53.42 points, or 0.3%, to 18,400.8. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2% to 5213.22 but still logged a monthly gain of 1%. The S&P 500 declined 0.2% to 2170.95.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 1.568% from 1.570% on Tuesday.

European banks continued to gain, however, as investors perceive higher interest rates as beneficial to the sector.

Adding to the sector’s momentum in Europe, Deutsche Bank chief executive John Cryan said at a conference that more consolidation among European banks was needed.

The Stoxx Europe 600 declined 0.4% and rose 0.5% in August, its second straight month of gains.

The UK pound rose 0.4% to $US1.3140 after consumer confidence and house price data suggested the economy remained stable following the Brexit referendum.

Japanese shares rose as the yen fell against the dollar, benefiting the country’s exporters.The Nikkei Stock Average rose for the second straight month, adding 1.9% in August.

Click the hamburger symbol top right of our homepage to access the Rich List 2016 and other sections.