US Market tumbles on Ukraine conflict, rate hike woes

12 Feb 2022 , 10:04 AM

The US stock market finished lower for second consecutive session on Friday, 11 February 2022, amid uncertainty about the outlook for pace of interest rates hikes and concerns about deepening tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 503.53 points, or 1.43%, to 34,738.06. The S&P500 index was down 85.44 points, or 1.9%, to 4,418.64. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 394.49 points, or 2.78%, to 13,791.15. for the week, the Dow slid by 1%, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 dove by 2.2% and 1.8%.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE exchange by 2393 to 967 and 143 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1323 issues advanced, 3412 issues declined, and 229 issues unchanged.

Total 9 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes declined, with bottom performing issues were information technology (down 3%), consumer discretionary (down 2.82%), communication services (down 2.54%), materials (down 1.52%), and financials (down 1.45%).

With investors already fretting about inflation and rising interest rates, selling on Wall Street accelerated after Washington warned that Russia had massed enough troops near Ukraine to launch a major invasion, and that an attack could begin any day.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan suggested a Russian invasion could occur during the Winter Olympics currently being held in Beijing. Sullivan also said any Americans in Ukraine should leave the country in the next 24 to 48 hours, reiterating a plea President Joe Biden made on Thursday.

The U.K. Foreign Office has also urged British citizens to get out of Ukraine as Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the border.

Comments from St. Louis Fed Bank President James Bullard about aggressive rate hikes have also rattled investor sentiment. Bullard indicated that he supports raising interest rates by a full percentage point by the start of July, including a possible 50-basis point hike. Bullards comments came after a report from the Labor Department showed consumer prices spiked by the highest annual rate in 40 years in January.

Among Indian ADR, Tata Motors sank 3.48% to $32.20, INFOSYS fell 2.92% to $22.27, Wipro fell 2.8% to $7.28, ICICI Bank dropped 1.57% to $20.67, Azure Power Global fell 0.4% to $15.47, and WNS Holdings shed 2.9% to $85.27. Dr Reddys Labs dropped 1.92% to $56.32, and HDFC Bank shed 1.48% to $66.57.

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