US markets settle in red amid spike in oil prices

24 Mar 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower with cut of over one percent on Wednesday amid spike in oil prices. Lingering concerns about the ongoing war in Ukraine have contributed to the pullback on markets. US President Joe Biden is expected to impose further sanctions on Russia during his trip to Europe this week. Meanwhile, the 10-year US Treasury yield surpassed 2.41% at its session high Wednesday, a level not seen since May 2019. The benchmark rate has surged since the beginning of the week, when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell vowed to be aggressive on inflation. The Fed last week raised interest rates for the first time since 2018. On the sectoral front, housing stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the session, resulting in a 3.2 percent nosedive by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index.

On the economic data front, new home sales in the US unexpectedly extended the previous month's sharp pullback in the month of February, according to a report released by the Commerce Department. The report showed new home sales slumped by 2.0 percent to an annual rate of 772,000 in February after plunging by 8.4 percent to a revised rate of 788,000 in January. The continued decrease surprised participants, who had expected new home sales to jump by 1.1 percent to a rate of 810,000 from the 801,000 originally reported for the previous month. With the unexpected drop, new home sales continued to give back ground after reaching their highest annual rate since last March in December.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 448.96 points or 1.29 percent to 34,358.5, Nasdaq dropped 186.21 points or 1.32 percent to 13,922.6 and S&P 500 was down by 55.37 points or 1.23 percent to 4,456.24.

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