U.S. Stocks Suffered Losses as Russia Attacked Ukraine

U.S. stocks declined on Thursday as the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine, causing global energy prices to jump and sending investors fleeing for the safety of fixed-income assets. 

Russia’s actions in Ukraine come as global equity markets were already reeling because of decades-high inflation stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 was down 1.5%, as the benchmark plunged further into correction territory. The S&P 500 sits more than 12% away from its January 3 record close.

Furthermore, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 500 points. It is more than 11% of its record. The Nasdaq Composite was flat after opening in the bear market territory. It was down more than 20% from its high in November 2021. The Nasdaq Composite since traded out of that range. 

U.S. stocks and tensions

After a rough open, U.S. stocks recovered from their lows of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 800 points earlier in the session.

Tech names saw gains on Thursday. Google’s parent company Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, as well as Amazon, all traded higher – erasing sharp declines from earlier in the day. On Thursday, Tesla was also well off its session lows, trading just 0.1% higher. Shares of Apple pared losses as well.

Apart from some tech buying, it was a broad sell-off with investors selling shares en masse. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase fell more than 4.5% each. Boeing dropped 3% and United Airlines fell more than 5%. 

Global oil benchmark Brent rose 6.7% to $103.36 per barrel. It surpassed $100 for the first time since 2014. The U.S. oil benchmark, WTI gained 6.3%. Natural gas prices jumped 2.9%.