Continuation of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Again Crashes Wall Street

On Wall Street, the main stock indices plummeted on Friday under the pressure of the ongoing war in Ukraine, recording losses again on a weekly basis, with the Dow Jones down for the fifth consecutive week.

The Dow Jones index fell 229 points or 0.69 percent to 32,944 points, marking a weekly loss of two percent. It has now declined for five consecutive weeks. 

The S&P 500 index weakened by 1.3 percent to 4,204 points on Friday, while the Nasdaq index dropped by 2.2 percent to 12,843 points. On a weekly basis, the S&P lost 0.9 percent in value, and the Nasdaq 3.5 percent, thus both indices fell for the second consecutive week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Friday that there have been 'certain positive changes' in the talks between the Kremlin and Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, claimed that Ukraine has reached a 'strategic turning point' in the war with Russia.

However, a ceasefire has not been negotiated, and Russian forces continued to bomb cities across Ukraine and appear to be regrouping for a possible attack on Kyiv. 

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden revoked Russia’s status as a favored trading partner, while Congress passed a funding bill that includes $14 billion in aid for Ukraine.

– Positive statements from Putin regarding ceasefire negotiations are potentially good, but investors are unsure how much weight to give them considering previous statements that have proven hollow – said Jim Paulsen, a strategist at the investment firm Leuthold Group.

The prices of mega companies’ stocks such as Apple fell the most on Friday, by 2.4 percent, and Tesla by 5.1 percent. 

Since the beginning of this year, the stock market has been under pressure from sales intensified by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, but initially, they were driven by investors’ expectations that the Fed would tighten monetary policy due to inflation. Since the beginning of the year, the S&P 500 is already down 11.8 percent.

On European exchanges, indices finished trading in the positive on Friday, recovering some of the losses from the previous day. The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended trading up 0.95 percent at 431 points. At the same time, the Frankfurt DAX rose 1.38 percent to 13,628 points, the London FTSE index by 0.8 percent to 7,155 points, and the Paris CAC by 0.85 percent to 6,260 points.