US stocks fell at the close on Thursday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index posting its biggest daily percentage drop in two weeks, as investors turned to buying shares of inflation-resistant sectors and safe havens such as bonds and gold as the rally Tensions between Washington and Russia over Ukraine.
After an exchange of fire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow rebels in the east of the country, US President Joe Biden said that all indications are that Russia is planning to invade its neighbor in the next few days, and that it is preparing a pretext to justify it.
Russia accused Biden of stoking tension and issued a strongly worded message saying Washington was ignoring its security demands and threatening to take unspecified “military-technical measures”.
On Wall Street, the technology and communications services sectors were the hardest hit. Stocks of financial institutions also fell as US Treasury yields fell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 622.24 points, or 1.78%, to close at 34,312.03 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 94.75 points, or 2.12%, to close at 4380.26 points, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 407.38 points, or 2.88%, to 13,716.72 points.
The Dow Jones was the biggest daily percentage drop since the 30th of November while the Nasdaq was the biggest percentage drop since the 3rd of February.
