Oil drags Wall Street to 2015 losses

(Closed): Wall Street finished its final day of 2015 down, marking its worst annual performance in seven years.

Oil prices suffered a second year of steep losses and are expected to take at least another year to clear as the international surplus continues.

The Dow Jones was down 178.84 points or 1.03%, at 17,425.03.

The S&P 500 was down 0.95% at 2,043.86, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was 1.15% lower at 5,007.41.

The oil price collapse sent global markets reeling throughout 2015.

Shares of US oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil were down 0.17% and 0.22% respectively for the day.

Energy stocks have taken a beating this year, with the S&P energy sector losing nearly 24% in the last twelve months.

For the year the S&P 500 was down 0.7% while the Dow Jones ended 2.2% lower.

The Nasdaq, however was a bright spot closing 5.7% higher for 2015.

Trading volumes were thin on the last day of the year.

Apple was down 1.92% weighing on the Nasdaq.

McDonald's was down 1.08% at $118 and weighed on the Dow the most.

Stocks were led lower as US jobless claims increased by 20,000 to 287,000 last week, wildly missing forecasts of 270,000.

Brent crude oil was up 3% at $37.60 per barrel for the day but down 35% over the year. US light crude was 1.2% higher at $37.04 but down 30% for the year.