NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd February, 2022) Wall Street fell broadly for a fourth day in a row, closing down more than 1% on Tuesday, as investors exited stocks on concerns of escalating tensions in Ukraine and US sanctions implemented against Russia.
"Geopolitical tensions will continue to undermine economic growth and that should keep equities very choppy until the Russia-Ukraine crisis has a clear conclusion," Edward Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said, as US stocks headed for a second straight month of losses.
Wall Street's three major indices - the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite -� closed down more than 1% each on Tuesday, recovering from the earlier lows of the day that sent US stocks down as much as 2%.
Russia recognized the two breakaway people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the country's parliament approved sending troops for peacekeeping operations there. US President Joe Biden, however, termed the action an "invasion of Ukraine" and announced sanctions on two Russian banks, elites and family members as well as on Russia's sovereign debt.
At Tuesday's close on Wall Street, the mostly industrial stocks-based Dow index was down 1.4% on the day and 4.4% for February, aside from a 7.5% decline on the year.
The S&P 500, which groups the top 500 US stocks, settled down 1% on the day. For February, it was down 4.7%, while for the year, it showed a 9.7% loss.
Nasdaq, made of highly-valued tech stocks such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Nasdaq and Google, again� led losses, finishing Tuesday down 1.2%. It was down 6% for the month and 14.5% for 2022.
