Main St Asset Management CFO Erin Gibbs and Wells Fargo Advisors senior vice president Mark Smith give their take on investors facing volatility during the Russia-Ukraine conflict on ‘Making Money.’
U.S. equity futures traded lower Friday morning as the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces intensified.
The major futures indexes suggest a decline of 0.4% when trading begins on Wall Street.
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Russian forces gained ground, shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and sparking a fire early Friday as they pressed their attack on a crucial energy-producing Ukrainian city.
Oil prices remained elevated early Friday.
U.S. benchmark crude was up 65 cents to $108.32 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost $2.93 to $107.67 per barrel on Thursday.
Brent crude, the international price standard, added 25 cents to $110.71.
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Oil prices are set to post their strongest weekly gains since the middle of 2020, with U.S. crude up more than 22% and Brent at 16% after hitting their highest in a decade this week, according to Reuters.
This week’s key economic report comes Friday morning, when the Labor Department is expected to say the U.S. economy added 400,000 new nonfarm jobs last month. That’s down from a much larger than expected gain of 467,000 in January. The unemployment rate is anticipated to slip to 3.9%, the lowest since February 2020.
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In Europe, London’s FTSE declined 1%, Germany’s DAX fell 1.9% and France’s CAC lost 1.9%.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell 2.2%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 2.5% and China’s Shanghai Composite index lost 1%.
Bitcoin traded around $41,000.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 33794.66 | -96.69 | -0.29% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 4363.49 | -23.05 | -0.53% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 13537.941346 | -214.07 | -1.56% |
On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 23.05 points to 4,363.49. The Dow slid 0.3% to 33,794.66. The Nasdaq dropped 214.07 points to 13,537.94.
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The pullback left the indexes on pace for weekly losses, as meanwhile bond yields were mostly steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.85% from 1.86% late Wednesday.
Stocks rallied mid-week after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he favored a modest interest rate increase at a policy meeting later this month. That reassured investors worried he might back more aggressive moves to fight inflation.
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Powell warned Thursday that the fighting in Ukraine is likely to further magnify the high inflation troubling world economies. Russia is a key oil producer and prices have been rising as global supplies are threatened by the conflict, raising concerns that persistent inflation could become even hotter.
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Powell said he is committed to doing whatever is necessary to slow inflation, underscoring the high-risk challenge in raising interest rates enough to cool price pressures without triggering another recession.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
