The S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq Composite all fell between 1.43% to 3.07%.
According to the US Security Advisor, the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalates points to a Russian invasion.
Market sentiment was bleak as safe-havens like gold, USD and the yen dominated at the end of this week.
As geopolitical tensions rose, Western Texas Intermediate ended the week at $93.10 per barrel.
US equity markets fell sharply on Friday due to recent geopolitical talk about the Ukraine-Russia conflict. According to US news sources, a Russian invasion was imminent. This prompted a flight towards safe-haven assets.
The S&P 500 falls 2.05% to 4,410.85 at the close of the New York session. The Dow Jones Industrial falls some 1.45%, at 34,729.63, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slides 3.17%, sits at 14.230.95.Sector-wise, energy (boosted by rising oil prices) and utilities advance 2.79% and 0.01% each, while the biggest losers are technology, consumer discretionary, and communications, sliding 3.01%, 2.82%, and 2.54%, respectively.
US media wires reported that Russia had decided to invade Ukraine
According to a PBS NewsHour reporter at 18:30 GMT, the US believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a decision to invade Ukraine. They have already communicated these plans to Russia’s military. Two officials from the Biden administration said that they expected the invasion to start as soon as next week.
The reporter stated that US defense officials anticipated a “horrific and bloody campaign” that would include two days of bombardment, electronic warfare, and invasion with the potential goal of regime change. According to reports, the North Atlantic Council was briefed today on the new information.
According to the US National Security Advisor, these rumors are confirmed
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, confirmed the rumors later in the day. He stated that the US is in a window where a Russian invasion could occur at any moment and could even happen during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Jake Sullivan urged Americans to leave Ukraine “as soon possible.” However, Sullivan stated that while Putin may not have made a final decision, Russia has all the forces necessary to carry out a major military operation. However, Sullivan clarified that Russia can also conduct a false flag operation.
Wall Street was closing when Via reported that President Joe Biden of the United States and Vladimir Putin of Russia would speak over the telephone on Saturday.
The geopolitical jitters aside the greenback was bid with the US Dollar Index moving close to 0.50%. This was a return to 96.05 which is linked to safe-haven flows. The 10-year yield fell eleven basis points to 1.916% below 2% in the US Treasury bond market. This was a tailwind for precious metallics.
Gold rises by 2% to $1864.44 per troy ounce. Meanwhile, WTI, the benchmark for US crude oil, reached $93.10 per barrel in the wake of renewed Ukraine invasion fears going into the weekend.
The FX Market saw the EUR/USD get hammered by the crisis trading at 1.1345 while the GBP/USD traded barely unchanged at 1.3550 after the UK’s GDP numbers increased. The safe-haven pairs were the USD/JPY, which traded at 115.31 despite being influenced by safe flows. The USD/CHF closed at 0.9243.
