US markets give back Thursday's gains

Wall Street markets closed sharply lower Friday as investors retreated from Thursday's dash to buy prompted by the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy announcement. The Fed's Open Market Committee elected to keep its accommodating policies in place. That late afternoon announcement sent stock higher in a hurry. But investors re-thought their positions on Friday, despite a lack of economic reports to consider. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average shed 1.19 percent, 185.46 points, to 15,451.09. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 0.72 percent, giving up 14.66 points to 1,709.91. The tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index gave up 0.39 percent, 14.66 points, to close at 3,774.73. On the New York Stock Exchange, 890 stocks advanced and 2,221 declined on a volume of 5 billion shares traded. Ten-year U.S. treasuries rose 5/32 to yield 2.737 percent. The euro rose to $1.3524, while the dollar dropped to 99.37 yen. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index shed 23.76 points, 0.16 percent, to 14,742.42. In Britain, the FTSE 100 index shed 28.96 57 points, 0.44 percent, to close at 6,596.43. Gold dropped 3.15 percent, giving up $43.30 to reach $1,325.80 per troy ounce on the Comex division of the NYMEX. Silver dropped 6.34 percent, losing $1.47 to reach $21.815 per ounce. In late trading, West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 1.7 percent, giving up $1.82 to reach $104.57 per barrel. On the Chicago Board of trade, corn for December delivery lost 8 1/4 cents to $4.51 1/4 per bushel. Soybeans for November shed 23 1/2 cents to settle at $13.16. Wheat closed at $6.46, off 11.