Wall St crashes amid Russia fears, suffering worst decline in 16 months
Hopes for a quick resolution to the conflict in Ukraine have been lost — and its resulted in the worst decline in US shares in 16 months.
Wall Street stocks plunged Tuesday in the latest rout following Russia’s attack on Ukraine as worries mount that spiking commodity prices will slow the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dove 2.4 per cent, a loss of nearly 800 points, to finish at 32,817.38, continuing last week’s retreat.
The broadbased S&P 500 sank 3.0 per cent to end at 4,201.09 — its biggest decline in 16 months — while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite tumbled 3.6 per cent to 12,830.96.
The ASX opened flat.
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The sell-off came after Brent crude futures spiked to nearly $140 a barrel before pulling back somewhat. Wheat struck record highs, along with several industrial metals.
“It seems the fundamental shift due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that inflationary pressures will remain elevated much longer than expected and that ultimately the economy will fall into a recession at some point over the next 24 months,” Oanda’s Edward Moya said in a note.
A “base case” is that this war “won’t end in a month as talks have not provided any meaningful signs of a truce and since Ukrainians have surprised Russia and not given the Kremlin an easy victory,” he added.
All but a handful of equities in the Dow retreated, with the biggest losers including American Express, down 8.0 per cent, Boeing, down 6.5 per cent and Disney, which fell 5.1 per cent.
Large tech shares were hammered with Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and Google parent Alphabet all dropping more than four per cent.
Petroleum-linked companies proved an exception to the trend. Chevron won 2.1 per cent, while oil services giant Halliburton added 6.2 per cent.
— with AFP
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