Markets trembled Monday as investors worried about how high oil prices will rise and how much the global economy will suffer as the United States and its allies increased financial pressure on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Stocks moved up and down multiple times, resulting in a mixed bag for the main indexes. Investors flocked to bonds in search of safety, driving rates dramatically lower, while the Russian currency fell to a record low.
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The S&P 500, which had dropped as much as 1.6%, recovered much of its losses to finish 0.2% down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.4% after falling 1.1%.
Stocks on Wall Street trimmed their losses through the morning, at one point flipping to modest gains, after big tech stocks and others that benefit most from low-interest rates rallied. The war in Ukraine is raising expectations that the Federal Reserve may have to take it more slowly in its campaign to raise interest rates in order to fight inflation. Other markets showed more fear about the rising antagonism between Russia and the U.S. and its allies.
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Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic climbed more than 3% amid concerns about what will happen to crude supplies because Russia is one of the world’s largest energy producers. That’s increasing the pressure on the already high inflation squeezing households around the world.
In search of safer returns, investors ploughed into U.S. government bonds, which drove the yield of the 10-year Treasury down about 0.15 percentage points to 1.83%, it’s the biggest drop since the omicron coronavirus variant first rattled investors. Gold rose 0.7%.
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The S&P 500 fell 10.71 points to 4,373.94. The Dow, which had dropped 589 points, ended down 166.15 points to 33,892.60. The Nasdaq rose 56.77 points to 13,751.40.
The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks also bounced back from an early slide, adding 7.16 points, or 0.4%, to 2,048.09.
Energy stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 2.6%. Defence-related companies also gained, with Lockheed Martin up 6.7%.
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The Russian central bank raised its key rate to 20% from 9.5% in a desperate attempt to shore up the plummeting ruble and prevent a run on banks. The Russian currency plunged at one point plunged below 0.9 cents before climbing back to a shade above a penny, though still down nearly 15%.
The ruble had plunged more than 30% after the move to block Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system. Among other things, the sanctions are meant to crimp the Russian central bank’s access to over $600 billion in reserves and hinder its ability to support the ruble.