London, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 -
US Markets summary
Investors are concerned about the Ukraine conflict and the effects of Western sanctions against Russia on economy and inflation, so US markets reversed gains to close substantially lower.
President Biden announced fresh sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline's builder.
The Dow dropped over 460 points to settle at its lowest level in nearly 11 months, the S&P 500 lost a fourth day and went deeper into correction territory, and the Nasdaq dropped 2.6 percent.
European Markets summary
On Wednesday afternoon, Europe's major stock indices faltered, with the DAX erasing early gains to settle 0.4 percent lower at an 11-month low.
Following rumors of a broad hack against the Ukrainian government and bank websites, market mood deteriorated, and Ukraine declared a state of emergency, which will begin at midnight on February 24th. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has begun evacuating its Kyiv diplomatic workers.
At the same time, given the developments in Eastern Europe, market investors were becoming less confident about the pace of the US Fed's tightening cycle.
On the data front, the GfK consumer confidence index in Germany dropped unexpectedly in March.
On the financial front, utility Uniper reported a net loss of €4,106 million in FY21 and declared the smallest legal dividends permitted, while Wolters Kluwer reported a 1% increase in full-year profits.
U.S. Stock Market Indexes as at 4:22 p.m. ET
S&P 500: -79.26 (-1.84%) to 4,225.50
Nasdaq: -344.03 (-2.57%) to 13,037.49
Dow Jones: -464.85 (-1.38%) to 33,131.76
European Stock Market Indexes
STOXX Europe 600: -1.26 points, or 0.28%, to close at 453.86
FTSE 100 in London: best performer of the day; +4 points, or 0.05%, to end the day at 7,498
DAX 30 in Germany: -62 points, or 0.42%, to close at 14,631
CAC 40 in France: -6.93 points, or 0.10%, to end at 6,780 points
FTSE MIB 30 in Italy: -88.88 points, or 0.34%, to close at 25,955 points
IBEX 35 in Spain: -53.10 points, or 0.63%, to close at 8,440 points
Other markets
Ten-year U.S. Treasury note: +2.9 bps to yield 1.9770%
Dollar index: +0.18 or + 0.19%
VIX volatility index: +2.21 (7.67%) at 31.02 as on Feb 23, 3:15 PM CST
Oil prices
Brent crude: +0.20 or + 0.21% at $ 94.20 per barrel as on Feb 23, 2022 at 9:35 p.m. GMT
West Texas Intermediate: -0.11 or -0.12% at $ 92.25 per barrel as on Feb 23, 2022 at 4:37 p.m. EST
Precious metals
Gold: +9.09 or +0.48% at $ 1,907.57 an ounce as on Feb. 23 at 16:47 NY Time
Silver: +0.45 or +1.86% at $ 24.53 an ounce as on Feb. 23 at 16:47 NY Time
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin: −744.70 (1.95%) at $ 37,506.70 as on Feb 23, 9:45 PM UTC
Ethereum: −22.25 (0.84%) at $ 2,615.73 as on Feb 23, 9:50 PM UTC
(Written and edited by: The Decision Maker)
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