The New York Stock Exchange ended a highly volatile session on Monday, marked by worries about the Russian-Western crisis around Ukraine and apprehension of future Fed rate hikes.
The Dow Jones fell 0.5% to 34,566.17 points, registering its third negative session in a row. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index ended in equilibrium at 13,790.92 points. And the broader S&P 500 index dropped 0.4%, closing at 4401.67 points. In Toronto, the S&P/TSX fell 1% to 21,352.51.
The Russian stock market and the ruble also fell on Monday as tensions escalated over Ukraine over the weekend, with the West accusing Russia of wanting to invade its neighbor, which Moscow denies. In the morning, the main index of the Moscow Stock Exchange, the RTS (denominated in dollars), plunged 5% and continued to sink at midday. It ended the session down 3%. In all, it has fallen by more than 10% since the start of the year.
screw turn
For Kathy Lien, of the Daily FX site, investors “remain skeptical about the possibility of an agreement, the risk of conflict remaining very high, hence the behavior of the shares”.
The prospect of a rate hike by the US central bank (Fed) was also on the minds of investors. Shortly before the opening of Wall Street, a member of the Fed repeated his remarks saying that rates should be raised by one percentage point before the beginning of July, a tougher turn of the screw than what had been envisaged so far. .