Wall Street ended lower on Friday after escalating tensions in Ukraine and US warnings of a potential Russian invasion prompted investors to dump risky assets in the run-up to a long weekend.
The NASDAQ Composite fell sharply, pulled down by declines in high-growth stocks, including Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, each down around.
Russian-backed separatists packed civilians onto buses out of breakaway regions in east Ukraine, another development in a conflict the West believes Moscow plans to use as justification for all-out invasion of its neighbor.
Photo: Reuters
Russia has said it has no intention to attack Ukraine, accusing the West of fear-mongering.
Speculation about the US Federal Reserve’s next move also weighed on equities.
New York Fed President John Williams said earlier in the day that it would be appropriate to hike interest rates next month, without mentioning the magnitude.
“This is a confused market, confused about Ukraine, confused about how aggressive the Fed is going to be, and pretty much ignoring very strong earnings results from the fourth quarter,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.
Expiration of monthly options contracts was also seen adding to the volatility ahead of the US market holiday tomorrow for Presidents’ Day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday fell 0.68 percent to end at 34,079.18 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.72 percent to 4,348.87.
The NASDAQ Composite dropped 1.23 percent to 13,548.07.
The indices logged weekly declines for the second straight week, buffeted by rising tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent, the Dow lost 1.9 percent and the NASDAQ declined 1.8 percent.
Intel Corp tumbled 5.3 percent to its lowest since 2020 after the chipmaker’s turnaround pitch failed to impress investors worried about its loss of market share.
About 78 percent of the 417 S&P 500 companies have in this reporting season posted quarterly earnings above analyst estimates as per Refinitiv data.
Roku Inc slumped 22 percent after the streaming platform’s disappointing quarterly revenue and first-quarter outlook.
DraftKings Inc also fell 22 percent after the sports-betting company forecast a bigger-than anticipated loss for this year.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.84-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 2.10-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and 28 new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 19 new highs and 395 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 11.3 billion shares, compared with the 12.3 billion average over the past 20 trading days.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS