Wall Street ends sharply lower on fears of conflict in Ukraine

A ‘Wall St’ sign is seen above two ‘One Way’ signs in New York August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

Feb 11 (Reuters) – Shares on Wall Street ended sharply lower on Friday for the second straight session as investors worried about heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indices fell, led by technology (.SPLRCT), down 3.0%, and consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD), down 2.8%. The energy sector index (.SPNH) jumped 2.8% as oil prices hit seven-year highs. Read more

With investors already worried 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 an attack could begin any day. Read more

“We just have to see how it plays out over the weekend and whether or not international leadership can gloss over this,” said Thomas Hayes, managing member of Great Hill Capital LLC in New York. “Otherwise, the ripple effects could be significant, and that’s what worries the markets.”

Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) fell 7.3%, Amazon.com Inc fell 3.6% and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) both lost more than 2% . The four companies weighed more than all the others on the decline of the S&P 500 (.SPX).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 1.43% to end at 34,738.06 points, while the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 1.90% to 4,418.64.

The Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) fell 2.78% to 13,791.15.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (.SOX) fell 4.83%.

US stock exchanges were busy, with 13.4 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 12.6 billion over the past 20 trading days.

Wall Street’s latest selloff follows a slump on Thursday, when data showed consumer prices jumped 7.5% in January, the biggest annual increase in 40 years. Comments from Fed Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard on aggressive rate hikes also rattled investor sentiment. Read more

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.8% and the Nasdaq 2.2%.

Traders forecast a half-point rate hike in March with just a slim chance of a smaller quarter-point increase, and big bets for a policy trajectory that would bring rates back into a 1-range range. .75% to 2.00% by the end of the year. Read more

“If Ukraine comes under attack, it adds more credence to our view that the Fed will be more dovish than the market currently thinks, as the war would make the outlook even more uncertain,” said Jay Hatfield, chief executive. investments at Infrastructure Capital Management in New York.

A survey by the University of Michigan showed that US consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in more than a decade in early February, due to expectations that inflation would continue to rise in the near term. Read more

The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX), also known as Wall Street’s Fear Gauge, rose for a second straight session and hit its highest level since late January.

Online real estate platform Zillow Group Inc (ZG.O) jumped 12.7% after beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly sales, boosted by an 11-fold increase in revenue from its homes segment.

Under Armor Inc (UAA.N) fell 12.5% ​​after warning its profit margin would come under pressure in the current quarter. Read more

Falling issues outnumbered advances on the NYSE by a ratio of 2.40 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 2.54 to 1 favored the decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 15 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 208 new lows.

Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru and Noel Randewich in Oakland, California; Editing by Maju Samuel and Richard Chang

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