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Dow Jones closed Monday in slight decline, with 5 points, on a quiet market awaiting presidential elections of Tuesday. Indices were held down by the shares of oil companies, which have been depreciated as a result of the low price of barrels of oil, but also because of negative results from the industrial sector published today.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)index dropped by 5.18 points, or 0.06%, at 9319.83 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 fell by 2.44 points, or 0.25%, at 966, 31 points.
Nasdaq index rose by 0.31% or 5.38 points at 1726.33 points.

The race for the White House entered on the last turn. On November 4, Americans will elect their new president. According to the latest gallop polls, the democratic Barack Obama easily maintain an advantage of 5 points in front of Republican John McCain.

Obama will be voted of 49% by the Americans, while McCain is preferred by 44%. The difference between this two has limited in the last weeks from 7 to 5 points. Obama is in the forefront of all surveys made in September, but McCain has gained serious ground in three key states: Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.

Euro has depreciated to a minimum level never heated since 7 September 2007, of 1.3748 dollars, after the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet also expressed his fears about the European economic growth and talked about a moderation of inflation, writes AFP, quoted by NewsIn.

The single European currency recorded thus a decrease of more than 14% of the historical record in July, of 1.6038 dollars.

European Central Bank officials (ECB) have discussed yesterday about the possibility of a key interest rate down, said the ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet at the press conference held after the meeting of the monetary policy institution based in Frankfurt.

The ECB decided to keep key interest rate at 4.25%, set in June.

Investors' fears concerning the U.S. economy state and demand for oil has led to a fall in oil prices at the Asian electronic exchanges. Thus, in the morning changes, the price of oil "ligh sweet crude, with delivery in November has low with an dollar, reaching 92.97 U.S. dollars per barrel. Thursday, the oil was barred at 93.97 U.S. dollars per barrel, at the New York exchange.

Brent oil, with delivery in November was down by 87 cents, reaching the value of 89.69 dollars per barrel. In the United States, the world's biggest consumer of oil, the demand for petroleum products has fell with 7.1% in the last four weeks compared with the same period last year.

Asian stock exchanges, in decreasing

Japanese stock exchange was closed, Friday, falling to 1.94 percent, and the NIKKEI-225 index has reached the level of 10938.13 points, notes France Presse. Financial markets from South Korea are closed during the national day.

And the Hong Kong stock exchanges ended the first session Friday in the fall with 2.12%, Hang Seng index reaching at the value of 17824.80 points.