US markets end sharply lower amid renewed geopolitical concerns

18 Feb 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended sharply lower on Thursday amid renewed geopolitical concerns, as the Biden administration has reverted to describing a Russian invasion of Ukraine as imminent. The evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion. Adding to the concerns, Russia has expelled the deputy chief of the US diplomatic mission in Moscow. The latest developments come after Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists traded accusations of attacks in the eastern part of the country. Negative sentiment also have been generated in reaction to the latest batch of US economic data, including a Labor Department report showing an unexpected rebound in initial jobless claims in the week ended February 12th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose to 248,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level of 225,000. The rebound surprised participants, who had expected jobless claims to edge down to 219,000 from the 223,000 originally reported for the previous week. The Commerce Department also released a report showing new residential construction in the US pulled back sharply in the month of January. The report said housing starts tumbled by 4.1 percent to an annual rate of 1.638 million in January after inching up by 0.3 percent to a revised rate of 1.708 million in December. Street had expected housing starts to edge down by 0.1 percent to a rate of 1.700 million from the 1.702 million originally reported for the previous month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 622.24 points or 1.78 percent to 34,312.03, Nasdaq lost 407.38 points or 2.88 to 13,716.72 and S&P 500 was down by 94.75 points or 2.12 percent to 4,380.26.

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