Wall Street closed lower on Friday as the Ukraine war weighed heavily on the boom in US job growth last month. The boom in jobs in America pointed to the strength of the economy. Most of the 11 major S&P sector indexes declined, with financial stocks losing the most 2%. Investors were concerned about the impact Western sanctions against Moscow could have on the international financial system.
The S&P 500 banks index fell 3.35%. It saw a drop of around 9% for this week. This is the worst weekly drop since June 2020.
Globally, equities remained weak. Demand for safe-haven assets increased after the Russian military captured Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report showed jobs increased by more than 678,000 last month. This brought the unemployment rate down to 3.8%, the lowest since February 2020.
Zachary Hill of Horizon Investments in Charlotte said “Three or four weeks ago, we would have thought it was an incredibly important number. But given the background and the overall happenings in Europe, that’s not the case at all.”
“The potential for growth in a hot war, the impact on growth in Europe, and the impact on the commodity channel and inflation, are increasing investor concerns,” Hill said.
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Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Google’s owners—Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp—all lost more than 1% from the war.
The crisis in Ukraine raised energy stocks as crude and other commodity prices rally due to sanctions against Russia, a major oil producer. The S&P 500 energy sector jumped 2.85% and was up nearly 9% for the week.
A recent sell-off in good-value growth stocks led to a decline in the S&P 500’s growth index by 1.3% on Friday. The value index declined 0.3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.53% lower at 33,614.8, while the S&P 500 fell 0.79% to 4,328.87.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.66% to end at 13,313.44.
For the week, the S&P 500 and Dow both fell 1.3%, while the Nasdaq lost 2.8%.
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