Wall Street closes mixed as Hurricane Irma approaches

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK

Wall Street closed mixed Friday as investors braced for Hurricane Irma and took a selling position in tech stocks.

Electric automaker Tesla saw its shares decline 2.2 percent, while Apple and Amazon lost 1.6 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

The Nasdaq lost 37 points to close the day at 6,360, and posted a 1.2 percent slide for the week.

The S&P decreased three points to end trading at 2,461 on a weekly loss of 0.6 percent.

The Dow, on the other hand, added 13 points to finish the last trading day of the week at 21,797.

After devastating the Caribbean on Thursday, Irma is headed to the U.S. mainland and could cost as much as $125 billion in damage if it hits Florida, financial services company Credit Suisse said Wednesday.

Hurricane Harvey hit the state of Texas late last month, it's estimated to cause $180 billion in damage, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Crude oil prices, meanwhile, were down significantly Friday as investors fear Irma may cause major refineries in the Gulf of Mexico to shutdown once again, as was the case during Harvey.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was trading at $47.59 -- a 3.2 percent loss at the close of markets. International benchmark Brent crude was at $53.73 -- down 1.4 percent.