Wall St. falls 1% on inflation levels as oil climbs

Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with financials and technology down 2%. The energy index rose 2.5% to its highest level since May 2015.

Countries from Japan to the United States discussed imposing sanctions on Russian oil imports in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, helping Brent scale the session to $139 a barrel, the highest since 2008.

“When you’ve got the combination of the impact from the COVID pandemic, inflation in Russia’s position, it’s a fix for the increased volatility,” said Greg Basuk, chief executive of AXS Investments in Port Chester, New York.

“We are very bullish on equities, but we are cautioning investors to prepare for a rough ride over the next few weeks.”

The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, rose to 33.92 points in the session after hitting a high a week earlier.

A Kremlin spokesman said Russia, which calls the campaign launched on February 24 a “special military operation”, has told Ukraine that if Kyiv meets a list of conditions, it will “in an instant” Ready to stop the campaigns.

At 10:18 am, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 358.68 points, or 1.07%, at 33,256.12 and the S&P 500 was down 50.95 points, or 1.18%, at 4,277.92.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 196.27 points, or 1.47%, at 13,117.17.

Bank of America fell 3.7%, dragging the S&P 500 Bank Index down 2.2%. Payment service providers Visa, American Express and Mastercard lost nearly 4% after suspending operations in Russia.

Cruise operators Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and carrier United Airlines Holdings Inc, dropped 6.1% and 7.0%, respectively, to lead losses among travel companies, as a jump in oil prices again threatened to disrupt a nascent recovery. .

Defense stocks L3Harris Technologies Inc, Northrop Grumman Corp and Lockheed Martin Corp gained 3.3% to 4.6%.

Investors await Thursday’s report on US consumer prices, a hot reading with the prospect of a Federal Reserve rate hike later this month.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell last week backed a 25-basis-point rate hike at the central bank’s March 15-16 policy meeting and would be “ready to move more aggressively” later if inflation picks up as expected. is not less than

Traders now see a 99% chance of a 25 basis point hike by the Fed at its March meeting, compared to a 1% chance of no change in rates.

The issues outweighed the advances, leading to a 2.02-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.89-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 46 new 52-week highs and 35 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 48 new highs and 293 new lows.

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.