Stocks Fall In Global Markets; Oil Tops $100 A Barrel

Asian stock markets slid Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2022, and oil prices surged more than $5 per barrel and breached $110 a barrel as Russian forces stepped up attacks on Ukrainian cities, Joe McDonald reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: On Wall Street, the S&P 500 declined to 4,306.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.8% to 33,294.95. The Nasdaq composite slid 1.6% to 13,532.46.

Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul declined as President Vladimir Putin’s invasion fueled fears of global economic turmoil. Sydney gained.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P index lost 1.5% on Tuesday, deepening a two-month-old skid. The war is adding to worries about global economic growth in the face of plans by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to fight surging inflation by raising interest rates.

"The conspiracy of geopolitical uncertainty and stagflation-type impulses is a brutal shock,” Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a report.

Oil prices rose despite an agreement by the United States and other major governments in the International Energy Agency to release 60 million barrels from strategic reserves to stabilize supply.

Benchmark U.S. crude jumped another $5.09 to $108.45 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose $7.69 on Tuesday to $103.41. Brent crude, the price basis for international oils, gained $5.33 to $110.28 per barrel in London. It soared $7 the previous session to $104.97.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 declined to 4,306.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.8% to 33,294.95. The Nasdaq composite slid 1.6% to 13,532.46.

JPMorgan Chase fell 3.8% and Bank of America slid 3.9%. More than 70% of the stocks in the S&P 500 closed lower.

Technology, industrials, and communication companies were among the biggest drags on the benchmark index. Energy stocks rose. Occidental Petroleum jumped 7%. The dollar gained to 115.00 yen from Tuesday’s 114.86 yen.

The euro advanced to $1.1129 from $1.1123. The value of Russia’s ruble fell further to 0.9 U.S. cents despite the Russian central bank’s decision Monday to raise interest rates to defend the currency.

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