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Wall St drops as oil rally, Russia-Ukraine conflict fuel worries

Published 03/23/2022, 07:31 AM
Updated 03/23/2022, 05:01 PM
© Reuters.  The logo for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is displayed on Wall Street in New York City, U.S., March 22, 2022.  REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

© Reuters. The logo for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is displayed on Wall Street in New York City, U.S., March 22, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - All three major U.S. stock indexes ended more than 1% lower on Wednesday as oil prices jumped and Western leaders began gathering in Brussels to plan more measures to pressure Russia to halt its conflict in Ukraine.

Responding to Western sanctions that have hit Russia's economy hard, President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will seek payment in roubles for natural gas sales from "unfriendly" countries, while its forces bombed areas of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv a month into their assault.

Oil prices rallied 5% to over $121 a barrel and natural gas futures also jumped. [O/R] While higher oil prices benefit energy shares, they are a negative for consumers and many businesses. The S&P 500 energy sector rose 1.7% and utilities gained 0.2%, while all of the other major S&P 500 sectors were lower on the day.

"These geopolitical problems are sort of hanging over the market," said Stephen Massocca, senior vice president at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.

"The resurgence of oil prices is giving people pause," he said, adding, "There needs to be a resolution with Russia. That's going to hold the market back."

The day's decline follows a recent string of gains as the market recovered from lows hit amid the conflict and increased worries about inflation and higher interest rates.

Among the day's biggest drags, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Inc's stock slid 9.3% after the Photoshop maker late Tuesday forecast downbeat second-quarter revenue and profit and sees an impact on fiscal 2022 revenue due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 448.96 points, or 1.29%, to 34,358.5, the S&P 500 lost 55.37 points, or 1.23%, to 4,456.24 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 186.21 points, or 1.32%, to 13,922.60.

Investors continued to assess the outlook for U.S. interest rates. San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said on Wednesday she is open to raising rates by 50 basis points in May, joining other policymakers in saying so.

Last week, the U.S. central bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2018.

Alphabet-owned Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) said it will pause all ads containing content that exploits, dismisses or condones the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Its stock fell 1.1%.

GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) shares jumped 14.5% after Chairman Ryan Cohen's investment company bought 100,000 shares of the videogame retailer.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.78-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.81-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013.  REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and four new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 43 new highs and 60 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.69 billion shares, compared with the 14.62 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Latest comments

Putin - not even Halfbright 😂He’s always free to refuse our $ and € 🤣🤣🤣
What's the market gonna' look like when Putin has control of 1/2 the world's helium supply in Ukrain (a necessary component for chip production) and Xi takes back Taiwan?
Not gonna happen
Yesterday, market rallies due to rate hike. Todya, market nosedive because of rate hike...What a joke, no other better way to explain the market movement?
people who write those article don't look at the charts and have no clue of the market action 101. they just come up with assumed reasons.
What I say???The great robbery of wealth from the common.americans.by hedgebfunds...they've been.starving all year you guys threw them.a bone yesterday they just coukdnt resist...they.gotta pay CEO bonuses somehiw.....
Please how does a hedge fund steal from the people you call “common” Americans? Maybe lets first talk about what they do to their clients when most funds know full well that they’re unlikely to outperform and they still charge fees to their clients. If anything, they’re a transfer from rich to poor, and a dishonest one.
10AM sharp, and the NASDAQ miraculously "rallies" into the green.  Why doesn't the laughingstock of the financial world plunge at 10AM during a "gain?"  Criminally manipulated, PREDICTABLE JOKE.
Nasdaq was red at 10 am & is still red now
 It was green at noon, after magically "rallying" nearly 200 points on nothing.  Then the "buying" miraculously ended just as it went green.  This laughable, breaker-driven "market" is a fraud of epic proportions.
Nasdaq red and on track to close at low of day.  I guess you gotta take back your "criminally manipulated" & "fraud" comments.
Can someone please teach me how to trade New York session market open using fundamentals
there are no fundamentals anymore
Sure. See Broker.
Adobe is a broad foreshadowing for tech's coming ERs starting April 3rd week , and not good is what Adobe ER showed, net margins and guidance will be at issue for tech
*product revenue, too
Wednesday's done already
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