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U.S. stock-index futures tumbled late Sunday after President Vladimir Putin raised Russia’s nuclear alert level following stinging new sanctions from the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
plunged between 400 and 500 points late Sunday, while S&P 500 futures
ES00,
and Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
fell even more sharply.
Chaos is expected in Russian markets
RU:MOEX
when they open Monday, after the U.S. and its allies on Saturday vowed to remove major Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank messaging network, effectively cutting them off from the global financial network. Some experts speculated about runs on Russian banks as the value of the ruble sinks against the U.S. dollar
USDRUB,
Tensions between Russia and the West ratcheted even higher Sunday after put Russia’s nuclear forces on red alert in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by NATO. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces continued to put up stuff resistance to Russian invaders, and Ukraine agreed to meet with Russia in Belarus for talks, though hopes for a quick resolution to the conflict appear slim.
Wall Street ended sharply higher Friday, on hopes of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine — though such hopes appear dimmer after the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
surged 834.92 points, or 2.5%, to close at 34,058.75, with the blue-chip gauge notching its best daily gain since early November 2020. The S&P 500
SPX,
rose 95.95 points, or 2.2%, to end at 4,384.65. The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
added 221.04 points, or 1.6%, to finish at 13,694.62.
For the week, the Dow dipped by less than 0.1% while the S&P 500 rose 0.8% and Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.1%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq benchmarks wiped out losses from earlier in the week.
Oil prices continued to rise Sunday, with West Texas Intermediate crude
CLJ22,
and Brent crude
BRNJ22,
the global benchmark, again edging toward $100 a barrel.
