war in Ukraine
War in Ukraine continues to trouble Dow Jones Index
The US government does not rule out sanctions against Russia’s energy sector. This also affects the markets. Photo: Wang Ying/XinHua/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The Russian attack on Ukraine is raising energy prices and further sanctions are not excluded. While many stocks are slipping, government bonds are in demand.
The ongoing war in Ukraine has also kept a stranglehold on US stock markets. Despite new Western sanctions, Russia intensified its attacks on its neighbor.
Rising energy prices also fueled inflation concerns, especially as the US government says sanctions against Russia’s energy sector are still possible.
The Dow Jones Industrial closed down 1.76 percent at 33,294.95 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell 1.55 percent to 4306.26 points. The technology-heavy selection index Nasdaq 100 fell by 1.63 percent to 14005.99 points.
These shares are in demand
With oil prices continuing to rise, shares in oil companies remained in demand. Chevron’s shares at the top of the Dow rose by 4.0 percent. The company had also raised the target range for its annual share buyback target. ConocoPhillips shares advanced 2.2 percent and ExxonMobil rose 1.0 percent.
For the video conferencing service Zoom, the time of explosive growth in the Corona crisis is over, as the latest business figures show. With the waning tailwind from the corona pandemic, growth rates also normalized, as analyst Kash Rangan from the investment bank Goldman Sachs wrote. The Zoom titles lost 7.4 percent.
Target stock shot up nearly 10 percent. The retail chain’s figures for the fourth quarter exceeded analyst estimates.
Foot Locker shares lost 7.6 percent. The Swiss bank Credit Suisse downgraded the stock of the sporting goods retailer from “Outperform” to “Neutral” in view of the changed sales strategy of the important trading partner Nike and lowered the price target sharply from 70 to 30 dollars. Nike’s exit brings with it a lot of uncertainty, even at Foot Locker’s low valuation, analyst Michael Binetti wrote.
euro rate falls
The euro exchange rate temporarily fell below the $1.11 mark in US trading and thus to the level since May 2020. Most recently, the common currency was quoted at $1.1127. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.1162 (Monday: 1.1199) dollars. The dollar had thus cost 0.8959 (0.8929) euros.
Investments that are perceived as safe, such as US government bonds, were also in high demand due to the war in Ukraine. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries (T-Note Future) recently rose by 0.82 percent to 128.50 points. In contrast, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 1.73 percent.