Dow sinks 650 points as Brent oil settles at a six-month high of $116.72; bitcoin holds near $81,600 as ETFs shed another $138 million

Wall Street ended a volatile week lower as oil climbed again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 652.82 points, or 1.23%, to 52,215.16 on Friday, October 23, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.52% to 7,623.68 and the Nasdaq Composite eased 0.21% to 25,955.34, according to Yahoo Finance. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted a second straight weekly loss, per Yahoo Finance; the Dow still finished the week higher, by about 1.4%, per TheStreet.

Oil did the damage. Brent crude for December settled at $116.72 a barrel, which Yahoo Finance called a six-month high; Cointelegraph said the rise of nearly 3% took Brent to $116 for the first time since March 19, with traders weighing the risk of renewed US strikes on Iran. WTI finished at $103.44, per Yahoo Finance. Airlines fell on fuel costs while cybersecurity stocks rose, per Yahoo Finance. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 4.99% and gold fell 1.24% to $4,010.

Bitcoin was steadier than stocks. It briefly fell below $81,000 at the US open, with a low of $80,988 on TradingView data, then recovered to about $81,600 by late morning, per Cointelegraph; the Rio Times put its close at $81,629.20, up 0.39%. Keith Alan, co-founder of Material Indicators, said on X that if bulls failed to reclaim the 50-day moving average near $81,781 by the close, "I'm looking for a support test in the $78k - $80k range."

Fund flows stayed negative. US spot bitcoin ETFs saw a net $137.9 million leave on Friday, with $110.3 million out of IBIT and $31.8 million out of Fidelity's FBTC, offset only by $4.2 million into MSBT, per Farside Investors. That follows Thursday's $635.6 million outflow and leaves the funds down about $225 million for Tuesday through Friday.

What happens next: the Federal Reserve meets on October 28, with markets expecting no change in rates, per Yahoo Finance.