Wall Street ends the week at half mast, weighed down by the war in Ukraine

According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index dropped 0.53% to 33,614.80 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.66% to 13,313.44 points and the S&P 500 fell 0.79% to 4,328.87 points.

"Stocks remained under pressure after a crazy week", commented analysts at Schwab, pointing out that the good figures for the American labor market had been "overshadowed" by the attacks in Ukraine and especially the Russian strikes on the most important nuclear power plant in Europe, located in the south of the country.

Same story at Wells Fargo where it was noted that geopolitical risks and the seizure by the Russians of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant, had led the indices to their third week of consecutive losses for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 and fourth weekly drop. in a row for the Dow Jones.

Rare positive news for the market, the US employment figures appeared very solid in February with plethora of job creations (678,000, more than expected) and an unemployment rate still down (3.8%), thanks away from the pandemic.

Chicago Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Charles Evans told CNBC that the "good news" did "nothing" to change the position stated this week by Fed boss Jerome Powell, who is in favor of a rate hike of a quarter of a percentage point (0.25%).

The next monetary meeting of the Central Bank is scheduled for March 15-16.

With investors rushing into safe havens, bonds soared and yields on 10-year Treasuries, which move inversely to prices, slipped to 1.74% as they hovered around 2% before the Russian invasion of Ukraine a week ago.

The Vix index, which reflects market concern and volatility, climbed to a year high of well over 30 points.

Commodity prices have soared, oil rising to 118.11 dollars for a barrel of Brent, a level not reached for 13 years, galvanized by the de facto cessation of Russian exports.

The euro tumbled against the dollar, falling below the symbolic threshold of 1.10 dollars per euro for the first time in two years.

Due to the sanctions on Russian banks and the Central Bank of Russia, "the financing market is under unparalleled stress conditions since the start of the pandemic in March 2020", Christopher Vecchio, analyst for DailyFX, told AFP. .

"Based on certain criteria, we are seeing the strongest demand for dollars since the Lehman Brothers crisis in 2008," he said.

Six of the eleven S&P sectors ended in the red, starting with banks (-1.96%) and the information technology sector (-1.78%).

On the other hand, the energy sector (+2.85%) and public utility services (+2.19%) pranced in the lead.

Facebook (Meta) lost 1.43% to $200.06 and Twitter 0.30% to $33.39 after Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor began "restricting access" to users on Friday. two American social networks in the country.

Microsoft dropped 2.05% to $289.86.

The American computer giant announced on Friday that it was suspending “new sales” of its products and services in Russia, joining the long list of companies withdrawing at least temporarily from the country.

Between fuel prices and geopolitical concern, airline stocks fell high like United Airlines (-9.07% to 36.71 dollars) or American Airlines (-7.13% to 14.59 dollars) .

Stock index provider S&P Dow Jones has announced that it is removing shares of Russian companies traded on the US market from its indices.

This measure comes on top of the fact that trading in Russian securities listed or represented on the NYSE and Nasdaq has been suspended since Monday.

© 2022 AFP