US markets closed lower; records third straight weekly loss

The US markets closed lower on Friday, suffering another bout of selling and the main indexes registered losses for a third straight week. 

The Federal Open Market Committee will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, and although no rate changes are expected, investors will closely be watching Chairwoman Janet Yellen's news conference for hints on how patient the central bank will be before tightening its monetary policy. 

On the economy front, wholesale prices fell in February for the fourth straight month despite the first increase in gasoline costs since last summer, offering more evidence that the big plunge in oil has eased inflationary pressures throughout the US economy. 

The producer price index - a good proxy for wholesale costs declined by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% last month. 

Wholesale inflation was unchanged, however, if energy, food and the especially volatile category of trade margins are stripped out. A record 1.5% drop in trade margins mostly accounted for the decline in producer prices in February. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 91.2 in March from 95.4 in February. That's the worst reading since November.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 145.91 points or 0.82 percent to 17,749.31, Nasdaq was down by 21.53 points or 0.44 percent to 4,871.76 while, S&P 500 dropped 12.55 points or 0.61 percent to 2,053.40. 

The Indian ADRs closed in red on Friday; Dr. Reddy's Lab was down 1.82%, Tata Motors was down by 0.71%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.44%, HDFC Bank was down 0.21% and Wipro was down 0.13%.