US stock markets had a poor night, as growing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine outweighed good news on the economic front. President Biden warned the nation that such an invasion could come in the “next several days,” pushing the US stock market to one of its worst trading sessions for the year.
The S&P 500 fell 2.1%, the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was hardest hit, surrendering 2.9%.
Walmart tops estimates
This overshadowed a strong quarterly earnings report from Walmart
(NYSE: WMT), in which revenue and profit beat expectations, showing that the US consumer is alive and well. That story ties in with the market’s growing expectation of potential aggressive Fed tightening.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks fared on Thursday.
- DoorDash (NYSE: DASH) up 10.7%
- Newmont (NYSE: NEM) up 5.4%
- Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) down 3.8%
- Meta (NASDAQ: FB) down 4.1%
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) down 5.1%
- Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) down 11.6%
This negative lead from US stock markets is expected to send the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) lower at the open this morning. For a round-up of the latest news as ASX reporting season heats up, check out my ASX 200 morning report.
