Global stock markets retreated on Friday at the end of a highly volatile week, rocked by twists and turns in the Ukraine crisis and concerns about coming interest rate hikes.
Wall Street had already witnessed a steep drop on Thursday on renewed fears that Russia would soon invade Ukraine, as well as long-running angst about the Federal Reserve's plans to hike interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.68 per cent to end at 34,079.18 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.72 per cent to 4,348.87. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.23 per cent to 13,548.07.
Intel tumbled 5.3 per cent to its lowest since 2020 after the chipmaker's turnaround pitch failed to impress investors worried about its loss of market share.
About 78 per cent of the 417 S&P 500 companies have in this reporting season posted quarterly earnings above analyst estimates as per Refinitiv data.
The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and 28 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 19 new highs and 395 new lows.
"I think given the irrefutable downtrend that we're in, it's very hard to find buyers in a market like this," said Maris Ogg, a founding principal at Tower Bridge Advisers.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100, the Paris CAC 40 and Frankfurt's DAX all ended the week in negative territory.
"Markets continue to chop around on these Russia headlines," said Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com.
Shellfire rang out near the front line between government forces and rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, as Kiev and Washington accused Russia of seeking to provoke an incident to falsely justify an invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will oversee a ballistic missile drill this weekend, gave a warning about a "deterioration of the situation" in eastern Ukraine, while the US said an invasion was imminent.
The crisis in Ukraine comes as traders continue to contend with the prospect of US interest rates rising sharply this year as the Fed's tries to rein in inflation at a 40-year high.
After spending most of last year saying surging prices would be transitory, the US central bank is now in firefighting mode.
I think given the irrefutable downtrend that we're in, it's very hard to find buyers in a market like this
Maris Ogg,
founding principal at Tower Bridge Advisors
But commentators fear it may be behind the curve and will have to act more stringently than previously thought.
New York Fed president John Williams said hiking rates at the Fed's meeting in March is "appropriate", but he does not see a need to raise by more than a quarter-percentage point initially.
Still, he left the door open to faster rate hikes later if needed.
With tensions in Eastern Europe continuing to absorb most of the attention, oil prices rose despite traders' increasing optimism about a deal on Iran's nuclear programme that could see it restart crude exports.
"In the absence of a deal, we could already be talking about triple-figure oil prices," noted Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda trading group.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
First Person
Richard Flanagan
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Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
Fireball
Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.
A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
